AFGE Statement on Federal Employee Retirement Hearing
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2012 – American Federation of Government Employees National President John Gage today issued the following statement in response to the congressional hearing on federal employees’ retirement security before the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on the federal workforce, U.S. Postal Service and labor policy:
“Congress created the Federal Employees Retirement System in the mid-1980s to mirror leading private sector practices. The vast majority of a federal employee’s retirement income comes from personal investments in the government’s 401(k) plan and mandatory payments into Social Security. Federal employees also receive a very modest pension that provides an average of $939 a month when they retire. As NARFE Director of Retirement Benefit Services David Snell so eloquently stated in his testimony before the subcommittee, ‘federal employees are not retiring rich.’ Read more
Legislative Attacks On Federal Retirement Compensation Is Based On Misguided Assumptions
STATEMENT BY DAVID B. SNELL
DIRECTOR OF RETIREMENT BENEFITS SERVICES
NATIONAL ACTIVE AND RETIRED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION
ON BEHALF OF THE MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS OF THE FEDERAL-POSTAL COALITION
note: Full testimony below
Unfortunately, recent legislative proposals have sought to unravel this basic bargain, unfairly singling out middle class federal employees for disproportionate sacrifice. Last month, the House passed legislation (H.R. 3630) that would use cuts to federal retirement compensation of middle class federal and postal workers to pay for a payroll tax holiday. It would offset over half of the cost of the holiday ($65 billion over ten years out of a $121 billion cost3) on the backs of less than 2 percent of the nation’s workforce.4 This would add financial strain on top of the prospect of job loss through the sequestration process mandated by the debt ceiling agreement and the more than $60 billion that the federal government has already saved by freezing federal employee pay for the past two years, which itself has permanently diminished long-term annuities for recent retirees.
Attacks Based on Misguided Assumptions
The legislative attacks on federal employee retirement compensation seem to derive from: (i) the misguided assumption that most private sector 401(k) retirement plans provide adequate retirement income security – they do not; (ii) the related assumption that federal retirement benefits are overly generous – they are not; and (iii) the questionable opinion that instead of pursuing policies that would improve private sector retirement income security, Congress should pursue policies that diminish federal retirement income security – it should not. Read more
Rep. Lynch: Hearing On Reducing Retirement Benefits is Really Attack On Federal Workers
Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., on Wednesday introduced a bill that would increase how much federal employees pay toward their retirement and steeply reduce pensions for new employees.
HR 3813, the Securing Annuities for Federal Employees Act, would raise contributions for current Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) employees by 0.5 percentage points per year for three years, beginning in 2013. This would make FERS employees contribute 2.3 percent of each paycheck toward their pensions, and require an 8.5 percent contribution from CSRS employees.
The bill would eliminate the so-called FERS annuity supplement for new retirees beginning in 2013, except for employees facing mandatory retirement such as air traffic controllers. Today, FERS employees who retire before reaching age 62 receive a supplement equal to the Social Security benefit they will be eligible for once they reach age 62. Read more
House GOP rejects 2-month payroll tax cut
Temper Tantrum on Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress lurched toward Grinch-like gridlock on Tuesday as the Republican-controlled House rejected a two-month extension of Social Security tax cuts that President Barack Obama said was “the only viable way” to prevent a drop in take-home pay for 160 million workers on Jan. 1.
“The clock is ticking, time is running out,” Obama said shortly after House voted 229-193 to request negotiations with the Senate on renewing the payroll tax cuts for a year.
House Speaker John Boehner, told that Obama had sought his help, replied, “I need the president to help out.” His voice rose as he said it, and his words were cheered by dozens of Republicans lawmakers who have pushed him and the rest of the leadership to pursue a more confrontational strategy with Democrats and the White House in an already contentious year of divided government.
This time, it wasn’t a partial government shutdown or even an unprecedented Treasury default that was at stake, but the prospect that payroll taxes would rise and long-term unemployment benefits end for millions of jobless victims of the worst recession since the 1930s. Read more
NALC: Congress postpones USPS pre-funding payment for 8-months
Over the weekend, Congress approved an omnibus spending bill to keep the government operating through September that included a provision to again move the deadline for the Postal Service’s 2011 future retiree health benefits pre-funding payment for another eight months, to August. The spending measure also included language to keep the Postal Service delivering mail six days a week, rather than slashing service when the Postal Service needs to grow.
NALC applauds Congress and President Obama for acting swiftly, for avoiding partisan bickering and for not shutting the government down. We are enthusiastic that Congress chose not to make unwise decisions that could bankrupt the Postal Service.
While this bill is a temporary victory, Congress can still take legislative action through other bills next year to shutter post offices, end Saturday delivery and layoff hundreds of thousands of valuable employees.
So NALC’s work is far from over. As members of the House and Senate plan to move legislation that would damage the Postal Service, they seem thus far uninterested in addressing the unique and unfair burden that they created in 2006: that the Postal Service pre-fund its future retiree health benefits.
source: NALC Activist Alert
Opinion: Congressmen Issa-Ross Ignores 226 of their colleagues on Postal Reform legislation
Opinion by William Stevens:
The United States Postal Service has been vilified by the private sector of our country. Deficit reduction is the order of the day and some politicians are misinforming the citizens of the country into thinking the Postal Service is bankrupt and contributing to our deficit. House Resolution 2309 “The Postal Reform Act” introduced by Rep. Issa, R-Cal., and co-sponsored by Rep. Ross, D-Fla., is a point in question. It is important to know these gentlemen chair the Oversight Committee and determine what is placed on the floor of the House for debate. House Bill 1351 is co-sponsored by 202 Republicans and Democrats alike; Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, R-8, is a co-sponsor as well as a co-sponsor of HR137. The problem arises when two gentlemen can disregard the feelings of 202 of their colleagues. They alone establish what comes out of committee for debate on the floor of the House of Representatives. That is correct, HR 1351, co-sponsored by 202 members of Congress, will stay in committee, while HR 2309 sponsored by one member of Congress is on a fast track to be presented on the floor of the House.
Full story: Phillyburbs.com – Postal Service is not bankrupt, and it is not funded with tax money
PostCom: White House pressuring Congress to insert postal legislation into Super Committee package
Filed under: Congress, politics, postal, postal news, usps, white house
From Postcom
“Word has it that the authorizers in both the Senate and the House are under pressure from the White House – and even from elements of their own Leaderships – to provide a package of postal legislation that can be inserted into the Super Committee package that is now being negotiated – including the President’s proposal to enact the exigency rate increase”
PostCom: Postal News and Information from Around the World
Bipartisan Postal Reform Members Ask GAO to Settle Postal “Overpayment Issue” Once and for All
Filed under: Congress, politics, postal, postal news, press releases, usps
Unions Claim USPS is “Owed” $75 Billion. OPM Disagrees. Bipartisan Lawmakers Ask for GAO to Settle the Dispute
Washington, Sep 30, 2011-
Lakeland, FL – Congressman Dennis A. Ross (R-FL), Chairman of the Federal Workforce, Postal Service & Labor Policy Subcommittee, today released a copy of a letter sent to GAO, signed by the bipartisan leadership on the issue of postal reform.
Postal unions have consistently claimed the service is “owed” $75 billion because of “overpayments” into CSRS retirement funds. This week’s nationwide protests at Congressional offices by postal employees was intended to underscore this claim. OPM and editorial boards have consistently recognized no overpayment. Republicans in the House remain committed to opposing any taxpayer bailout of the Postal Service and want to determine, once and for all, the extent of any financial issue, if any. Read more
Highlights of the Issa-Ross Postal Reform Act
Filed under: Congress, postal, postal news, postal reform, press releases, usps
WASHINGTON- Today the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, the U.S. Postal Service, and Labor Policy reported out on a 8-5 vote HR 2309, the Issa-Ross Postal Reform Act of 2011, with changes that bring the total mandatory minimum savings for USPS in the bill to $10.7 billion annually. The bill will be heard at a full committee markup before heading to the floor.
The bill was introduced in June by Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Subcommittee Chairman Dennis Ross, R-Fla. The bill is the only postal reform legislation introduced this Congress that would restore the postal service to solvency and prevent a multi-billion dollar taxpayer funded bailout. Read more
Issa’s ‘Postal Destruction’ Bill Passes House Subcommittee
Bill Would Authorize Layoffs, Force Out Senior Employees First
Unions Keep Pressure On, Urge Members to Join Sept. 27 Rallies
A bill that would destroy the Postal Service as we know it passed a House subcommittee on Sept. 21 by a vote of seven to four, along party lines. Republicans voted in favor of the bill; Democrats voted against it. The bill, H.R. 2309, was co-sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), chairman of the postal subcommittee. Read more