The Congressional Budget Office has issued the latest in a series of reports on deficit-cutting options, including several involving federal benefits. Options include: reducing federal jobs not involved in defense, security or certain other occupations by 10 percent by filling only one of every three vacancies (with a ban on replacing them with contractors); raising the employee retirement contribution by 1.2 percent of salary, phased in over three years (excluding those already paying at higher rates because of being first hired into government this year and after); basing annuities for those retiring in 2015 and later on the highest five salary years rather than the current three; basing retiree COLAs on an inflation measure that would produce smallerincreases; shaving a half-percentage point off the raises currently indicated by federal pay law; and raising the Medicare payroll deduction by 0.5 percent of salary. It also lists numerous potential changes to Social Security that would impact FERS and CSRS Offset employees who are covered under that system, including: raising the maximum amount of salary from which the Social Security payroll tax is taken; paying less generous benefits for new beneficiaries; and raising the age at which full benefits can be collected. Unlike some prior reports, the document does not discuss ending the current percentage formula of sharing FEHB premiums and switching to a voucher system in which enrollees would get a fixed dollar amount to use to buy insurance; however, that option, which in general would shift more of the cost from the government to enrollees over time, is in a list of other potential changes.
