The President’s FY19 budget proposes dismantling much of the financial and employment security that federal employees fought for over the past 100 years. The release of the budget language on Tuesday begins a fierce campaign by federal unions and good government coalition partners to fight the harmful and groundless recommendations from the Trump administration to decimate the federal workforce and politicize the executive branch.
“What this administration proposes is stunning but I’m not surprised,” stated NFFE national president Randy Erwin. “This proposal is a little bit of NSPS 2.0 and a lot of misguided and irresponsible ideology. It is very clear that this White House has no idea on how to run the federal workforce nor do they care about the financial wellness of working Americans. They have declared war on the federal worker and we will answer the call to fight in force.”
Some of the most egregious points in the budget proposal include: a pay freeze for 2019, an increase in employee pension contributions as much as 5.4% of salary without a pension increase, a cut in pension earnings by replacing the ‘high-3’ calculation with the ‘high-5’, a study that could elimination of the FERS defined benefit (pension) for new hires, a lower G-Fund return in the TSP, elimination of COLA for active and retired employees, doubling the time to receive a STEP increase, combining sick and vacation time and reducing both, install pay-for-performance, and eliminate the Social Security supplement.
The full budget can be found here with the administration’s analytical perspectives of the federal employee pay and benefit cut proposals starting on page 65.
NFFE is fully engaged with Congress and our coalition partners to stop these offensive initiatives against federal workers. You can help by organize your bargaining unit now! There is strength in numbers!