The administration’s fiscal 2007 budget for the Department
of Labor proposes reforms to the Federal Workers
Compensation Program, which provides wage replacement and
medial benefits in response to occupational illness, injury
or death.
FECA costs get charged back to agency budgets, so managers
could see it become easier for the government to move
employees into disability retirement if it’s clear they will
never return to work, rather than eating up office budgets.
Major Postal Service reform bills currently being hashed
out in Congress – the Senate recently passed its version –
contain similar FECA reform provisions, as USPS has always
been the main advocate on this issue.
According to the Office of Management and Budget, the budget
re-proposes reforms to “strengthen program integrity, promote
benefit equity, and encourages workers to return to work as
early as possible,” something it says could save more than
$590 million over 10 years. It said the program hasn’t had
major updates since 1974.
