Past proposals would require federal employees to pay more toward their retirement benefits and to reduce their value in the future. Image: Amy Lutz/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffHouse Republicans have started carrying out plans showing their intentions for the federal government over the 2023-2024 Congress, some of which could have substantial — but as yet uncertain — implications for federal employees.
Chief among those priorities is a series of rules changes enacted this week that could make it more difficult for Congress to enact annual budgets for agencies. Those changes already have led to concerns about a partial government shutdown when the current fiscal year ends September 30 and potentially a default on the national debt when the current limit is hit, possibly even earlier.
The rules generally require that increases be offset with cuts; erects high procedural barriers to raising taxes; require a specific vote on raising the debt ceiling; allow for more amending of bills once they reach floor voting; and require at least three days of advance time before voting on the kind of fast-arising bills that Congress commonly has used to head off budgetary deadlines.
The rules package also brings back the “Holman Rule” that allows language in appropriations bills to target specific federal offices for reductions, and even individual employees for firing without appeal rights. That rule had been in effect the last time the GOP controlled the House, through 2018, but not under Democrats for the last four years.
House Democrats representing federal employee-heavy districts in the national capital region called the moves “efforts to vilify and punish hardworking federal civil servants for doing their jobs.” They said the Holman Rule “creates a mechanism for legislators to set policy or fire civil servants with must-pass government funding bills” and that the budgetary rules reflect an intent to “use showdowns over the debt limit and government funding bills to extract policy concessions using the threat of a government shutdown or catastrophic debt default.”
Not part of the rules package, but likely to arise during the upcoming budget process, would be a long-term commitment to capping spending. Such a proposal not only could starve agencies of operating funds — used to pay employee salaries, among other purposes — but also could mean the return of proposals to require federal employees to pay more toward their retirement benefits and to reduce the value of benefits for those retiring in the future.
Democrats who control both the Senate and the White House can be expected to resist all of those initiatives. But Republicans already have signaled they will force such votes regardless, as shown by a separate early-priority move, to cut off the additional funding approved last year for the IRS over the next decade. That effort—which largely reflected mischaracterizations of how the money is to be used—likely will go no farther.
The House GOP meanwhile is moving to establish several panels to delve into agency operations. The main committee overseeing the federal workplace—the newly renamed House Oversight and Accountability Committee—would gain a special subcommittee to would investigate the government’s response to the pandemic. That would include “the development of vaccines and treatments and the implementation of vaccine mandates for federal employees and the military.”
Separately, a similar special subcommittee in the Judiciary Committee would investigate the “weaponization” of the federal government, including whether “illegal or improper, unconstitutional, or unethical activities were engaged in by the Executive Branch or private sector against citizens of the United States.” That is expected to focus in particular on investigations of former President Trump by the Justice Department and FBI.
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See also,
Decisions to Make about FEGLI after Retirement
Oversight of Federal Employment, Retirement Issues Ahead
The TSP 2022 Website and Unresolved Issues
The Process of Retiring: Check Your Agency’s Work
