Among the listed policy changes is requiring federal employees to “make greater contributions toward their own defined benefit retirement plans.” Image: Sasun Bughdaryan/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA report from Republicans on the House Budget Committee has recommended increasing the contributions that federal employees must make toward their annuity benefits, among other recommended changes to federal retirement.
The report comes months after the committee on a party-line vote passed a budget “resolution” that sets spending targets for the fiscal year that starts in October and lists options for achieving them. In the congressional budget process, a resolution is to serve as a blueprint for later work on appropriations bills and therefore serves more as a statement of preferred policies rather than a firm step toward carrying them out.
Filing the report clears the measure for a House floor vote, but even if one is held, the measure almost certainly will go no farther since the Senate has not even started work on a counterpart and is unlikely to do so. Congress has not enacted a resolution in advance of the appropriations process for many years.
Among the listed policy changes is requiring federal employees to “make greater contributions toward their own defined benefit retirement plans.” The measure provides no specifics, but past recommendations toward the same end would have resulted in employees paying at least several percent of salary more, possibly as much as 6 or 7 percent more. Some of those would have applied only to the FERS system while others would have included CSRS, as well.
The report also mentions ending the “special retirement supplement” for FERS employees who retire before age 62 and which largely duplicates the Social Security benefit they earned through federal employment until they reach that age and can begin drawing Social Security. That benefit is of particular value to federal law enforcement officers, firefighters and air traffic controllers who are subject to mandatory retirement at an earlier age; the report makes no mention of an exception for them.
The report also recommends eliminating the defined benefit portion of federal retirement entirely for those hired after an unspecified future date, and reducing the rate of return on the TSP’s government securities G fund—a proposal the TSP has opposed when it was raised previously.
It further calls for “tightening the belts of government agencies” with the likely result of reducing employment. “Congress should assess the ever-growing spending of federal agencies, determine what levels are necessary to execute their missions effectively and efficiently, while adjusting their funding accordingly,” it says.
Similar proposals have been raised many times in the past and generally have not advanced, except that a decade ago there were two increases in required contributions by FERS employees toward their civil service annuities. That resulted in three different levels of contributions, depending on the year they were hired.
In a dissenting statement, Democrats on the committee said they “completely reject this bleak and backwards budget and all of its misplaced priorities.”
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See also,
What to Know About the New Federal Application Process
Top 10 Provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill of Interest to Federal Employees
A Pre-RIF Checklist for Every Federal Employee, From a Federal Employment Attorney
Work Longer or Take the FERS Supplement Now: Which is Better?
