2015: New year, old threats

Technically, 2015 begins in January. But for active and retired feds, a preview of the next could arrive right after the Nov. 4 mid-term election.

It’s likely that the lame duck Congress will ignore feds for the rest of this year. But it may give them a hint of coming attractions that aren’t so attractive.

Given the anti-incumbent sentiment of many voters, turnover this year could be much heavier than usual. Politicians in normally “safe” districts and states may find themselves checking out their retirement package. Or looking for other employment.

“Federal workers dodged a bullet this year,” says veteran Hill-watcher Jessica Klement. She’s legislative director of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees. NARFE will be joining me today at 10 a.m. EDT, on Your Turn. They’ve had a busy year, but easier than most because the pols were preoccupied protecting their jobs.

Klement says feds also caught a break with the two-year budget deal. “There wasn’t the usual fight” and uncertainty, “so we had no budget fight” which, in the past has led to shutdowns and efforts to trim federal payroll costs by whacking employee and retiree benefits. But next year feds-postals and retirees will be back in the political bullseye.

Because this is an election year, the White House suspended its push for the so-called Chained CPI. That system, favored by many economists, would lower future cost of living adjustments for federal, military and Social Security retirees. Klement says if the change is made it could reduce lifetime benefits for CSRS retirees by tens of thousands of dollars.

The chained-CPI (using a different yardstick to measure annual inflation) is probably the biggest, yet least understood, economic threat facing current and future retirees.

Congress has a list of “usual suspects” proposals, aimed at the civil service, that it drags out each year. Most fizzle by mid-term. But in recent years, Congress and the White House did increase retirement plan contributions for new hires. Next year, Klement thinks, they may go after current employees requiring them to kick in more to their CSRS or FERS programs.

Other proposals likely to return next year include changes in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. One would reduce the government share of health premiums (now about 72 percent of the total premium) each year. Another would create a voucher system for workers and retirees. Now the Congress is out of the FEHBP, senators, representatives and many of their staffers no longer have a stake in how the FEHBP operates or premium costs to policy-holders.

Congress and the White House are likely to take another look at eliminating the FERS annuity supplement. That’s a bridge payment — in some cases worth thousands of dollars per year — to employees who retire from government before becoming eligible for Social Security benefits. Budget experts say ending it would save $1 billion over 10 years, meaning future retirees would lose that same amount.

Joining us on the show will be Federal Times senior writer Andy Medici to give us his input on 2015 and news of the day.

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID:

By Michael O’Connell

The most viewed YouTube video of all time — as of Oct. 8, 2014 — is Psy’s “Gangnam Style”, with 2,102,295,018 views. The next closest is Justin Bieber’s “Baby”, with 1,094,105,542 views.

Source: Wikipedia

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