Congress has taken steps recently toward Postal Service reform that could impact several benefit programs. A bipartisan bill has been offered in the Senate and a House committee has passed its own version, leaving the possibility that long-awaited reforms will see action in the fall. Both bills seek to change government-wide policy under the FECA program so that beneficiaries would be in effect switched to less generous disability retirement programs once they hit that eligibility point. Another part of the Senate bill could have government-wide ramifications by allowing negotiations over creating a new postal-only health insurance program for employees and a separate one for retirees that would in effect act as a Medigap plan; how those would affect the FEHB population left behind is unknown. Also, for new employees only, it would allow for the replacement of the FERS benefit with an enhanced TSP. The House version meanwhile would bar no-layoff provisions in future contracts and would require that by 2020 the postal contribution to FEHB and FEGLI be brought down to the levels contributed by other agencies. Both would provide relief, although in different ways, from a current obligation to pre-fund retiree health insurance benefits, among numerous other provisions.
