President Obama is planning to include upwards of $35 billion in cuts to federal retirement in his forthcoming budget proposal, according to the Washington Post.
The plan was revealed in a conference with White House reporters where Administration staff briefed newsmakers on the details of his FY14 budget proposal, which is expected to be released April 10th. Details on how the cuts will be implemented are scare at this point, but past reform efforts from the Administration may be instructive.
In its FY11 budget proposal, the White House recommended a 1.2 percent increase in the amount federal workers pay toward their pensions. The increase would be phased in over three years and impact all current federal workers. There is no official word that this will be included, but most agree that this option is not off the table.
The proposed cuts come at a difficult time for millions of federal workers. Most are facing furloughs, new employees are already paying more for their pensions, and all have been subject to a three-year pay freeze. All of this has happened at a time when agency budgets are shrinking fast and employee workloads are increasing even faster.
“Federal workers are not an ATM that elected officials can draw from whenever they’re in a fiscal pinch,” said NFFE National President William R. Dougan. “Federal workers are already hurting after more than $100 billion in cuts to pay, hours, benefits, and jobs. The bank is closed.”
Full details of the retirement reforms will be available when the budget is released April 10th.