In a letter to the congressional “super committee” last week, House Committee on Oversight and Government Darrell Issa (R-CA) laid out a long list of proposals targeting federal workers for huge cuts to their jobs, pay, and benefits.
The recommendations, which read like a ‘greatest hits’ album of anti-federal worker legislation, calls for huge cuts to federal retirement plans including a transition to a “high 5” pension calculation, a 6.2% increase in employee contributions to their FERS pensions, a 3% increase in contributions for CSRS employees, and the outright elimination of the FERS pension for new hires.
“These changes would be devastating to federal workers counting on the modest retirement they were promised,” said NFFE National President William R. Dougan. “Pulling the rug out from under the feet of current employees, and offering no retirement security to future employees, is no solution to the problems facing the federal workforce. We should be investing in a cutting edge workforce to solve the many problems we face as a nation rather than setting the stage for a second-rate workforce under Chairman Issa’s plan.”
As if it were not enough to rob federal workers of their future savings, the proposals also seek to curb current federal jobs and pay. In the letter Chairman Issa calls for massive workforce reductions through a flawed attrition scheme which permits federal agencies to hire only one new federal employee for every three who leave the government. The Republican chairman also recommends an extension of the current pay freeze through 2015, accompanied by the outright elimination of periodic step increases for workers.
“Federal workers have already sacrificed by accepting two years of frozen pay and substantially lower agency resources, which have lead to job cuts,” said Dougan. “We cannot afford to tap the federal employee well every time Congress refuses to make the tough choices.”