
House Republicans have said they will use their new majority status there to focus on limiting federal spending, sending a signal by making a bill to cut off the additional long-term funding approved last year for the IRS one of their first pieces of action.
That boost—$79 billion over the next 10 years above previously assumed baseline levels—has become something of a symbol of the two parties’ differences over government funding.
A vote to repeal that increase could prove to be largely symbolic since Democrats still control the Senate and President Biden almost certainly would veto any such bill if it reached him.
However, that likely will be just one of many such clashes to come in this year’s budget process, with the prospect of hitting the federal debt ceiling also ahead—an event that fiscal conservatives commonly use as leverage for spending limits.
Meanwhile, a package of operating rules from House Republicans would add several procedural hurdles against increasing either discretionary and mandatory spending and would require House committees to review programs under their purview whose authorizations have expired and would prevent any spending increase in them unless they are renewed.
The budget process set to begin in about a month also could see the revival of proposals to reduce the value of federal employee health insurance and retirement benefits and to require employees to pay more into the retirement system. Such proposals would face the same type of resistance from the Senate and White House, however.
Change in Direction on Employee Issues Ahead in New Congress
House Republicans Move to Revive Rule for Targeting Individual Federal Employees
January Raise Finalized, Will Range from 4.37 to 5.15 Percent
Spending Bill Allows 4.6 Percent Raise; Doesn’t Prevent a Future Schedule F
Most Expansion of GS Localities Put Off Until 2024; 2023 Raises Announced
See also,
OPM Describes Impact of Raise on Differing Categories of Employees
Oversight of Federal Employment, Retirement Issues Ahead
The TSP 2022 Website and Unresolved Issues
The Process of Retiring: Check Your Agency’s Work