The Vaughn Law Firm

Several Key Proposals for Employees at Stake

admin — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:29:23 +0000

The House and Senate budget resolutions differ in many ways affecting federal employees. Most notably, the House plan calls for a 10 percent reduction in the workforce through attrition and for equalizing the employer and employee contributions toward federal retirement benefits, which would mean about a 5.5 percent of salary increase in the employee share. The House plan also calls for ending the student loan reimbursement program for federal workers and the FERS “special retirement supplement” for those retiring after this year. The Senate plan contains no parallel provisions. If the House and Senate don’t move toward a compromise, the House may move ahead and vote on a separate bill called a reconciliation bill to enact its plan’s savings targets, as it did with similar proposals last year. Those proposals never became law, however, because the Senate did not act on that bill.

****Source Article: http://www.fedweek.com/item-view.php?tbl=6&ID=8287****

Many Questions Unanswered

admin — Fri, 03 May 2013 18:38:14 +0000

Another question which OPM has not settled is whether members of Congress and their staff stand to lose the employer contribution toward premiums, which is worth about 70 percent of the total in FEHB, by switching to the exchange system. Some read the law as meaning that will happen. That prospect has drawn attention recently on Capitol Hill, with some suggestions circulating that Congress would change the law so that they could remain in FEHB after all. That in turn revived the prior debate and led to the new proposal, sponsored by House Ways and Means Committee chairman David Camp, R-Mich., and the head of that panel’s subcommittee on health, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas. Their bill leaves many unanswered questions, including what would happen to the employer contribution toward premiums, the effective date, how coverage and premiums in the new plans would compare to those under FEHB, and more. It would have to pass through numerous congressional committees over the objections of federal employee organizations.

****Source Article: http://www.fedweek.com/item-view.php?tbl=6&ID=8267****

Some Growth in Employment Projected

admin — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:30:49 +0000

As measured by full-time equivalent positions, the budget projects an increase of 6,100 over the estimated 2013 total of 1,128,800; the 2012 actual was 2,090,700. The biggest gainer would be VA, up 8,200, mainly for medical care, and Treasury, up 5,600, mainly for increased tax compliance efforts at its subcomponent IRS. Other increases are targeted for food safety, financial regulation, and opening prisons under construction. Meanwhile Defense would be down by about 12,200 and Agriculture by about 1,700. Almost all other agencies would be virtually flat or down slightly. Many agencies, most notably DoD, have imposed general hiring freezes due to sequestration and have said they expect to keep those restrictions in place indefinitely due to expectations of their budgets moving forward.

****Source Article: http://www.fedweek.com/item-view.php?tbl=6&ID=8235****

Some Budget Issues Settled, Others Continuing

admin — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:47:13 +0000

Political leaders have wrapped up work on the budget for the current fiscal year, nearly six months into it, with enactment of a catchall spending measure that among other things cancels the 0.5 percent federal employee raise that otherwise would have started in April. The measure also avoids the threat of a partial government shutdown but generally leaves in place sequestration cuts that threaten employees of many agencies with unpaid furloughs starting in the upcoming weeks. The measure did allow some shifting of funds in some agencies; how that will affect furlough planning is largely still to be seen. DoD is reviewing whether it will need to impose the full 22 days it has been projecting, and for the meantime it put off planned issuance of notices by three weeks, to April 5; that means furloughs could start there no sooner than early May. Another provision was designed specifically to prevent furloughs of Agriculture food inspectors.

****Source Article: http://www.fedweek.com/item-view.php?tbl=6&ID=8215****

New House Budget Plan Has Familiar Look

admin — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:54:56 +0000

The House Budget Committee this week is set to approve a budget plan for fiscal 2014 that repeats several proposals affecting federal benefits from prior years. They include requiring equal contributions by employees and the government toward CSRS or FERS retirement benefits—meaning an increase in the employee share of about 5.5 percentage points–and a 10 percent reduction of the workforce by attrition over two years. One notable difference, is that while similar prior plans also called for extending the salary rate freeze by several more years, the new one doesn’t. However, it similarly calls federal employees over-compensated, and it would require savings to be achieved in compensation, beyond the retirement contributions increase, that the House might try to achieve by extending the freeze beyond this year. The Senate has promised a plan of its own this year, one that is not expected to contain similar provisions. The two chambers would then hold a conference with the goal – but no guarantee — of producing an agreement that would act as the blueprint for later spending bills. The White House has said that its budget plan, which likely will not be released for several more weeks, will ask for a 1 percent employee pay raise in January 2014.

****Source Article: http://www.fedweek.com/item-view.php?tbl=6&ID=8197****

Continued Funding Means Loss of April Raise

admin — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:24:32 +0000

While planning for fiscal 2014 has begun, Congress is still finalizing work on the current year budget. The Senate is set to join the House in preventing the 0.5 percent pay raise for federal employees scheduled to take effect after a current temporary funding bill expires two weeks from today (March 27). The House earlier voted as part of a new continuing funding bill to block the raise, and while employee organizations had been hopeful that the Senate would take a position in favor of allowing the raise, the Senate version also would continue the salary rate freeze, for what would be the third full year. The measures are needed to prevent a partial government shutdown once the current funding authority expires. They generally fund agencies at the lower levels required by sequestration through September, while adding funds in some areas and allowing more shifting of money among some accounts. It’s unclear whether those moves will be sufficient to prevent or soften furloughs expected in many agencies due to the sequester.

****Source Article: http://www.fedweek.com/item-view.php?tbl=6&ID=8196****

More Steps Lie Ahead

admin — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 14:28:48 +0000

Agencies have been notifying unions that they expect to conduct furloughs, triggering bargaining that the unions say they will pursue aggressively and that agencies say they will honor. While negotiations cannot stop a furlough, they can affect the “impact and implementation” — meaning details such as timing of furloughs, whether certain employees would have first choice in which days they would have to take off, adjustments to expectations of how much work employees should be getting done, and similar issues. Bargaining would be conducted at both the national and local levels. It’s uncertain how long such negotiations will last and what will happen if the two sides hit an impasse — over either what is or isn’t negotiable, or on the terms of an issue that definitely is negotiable. Such impasses could be referred to the FLRA, but since management would be facing a budget cut, it might go ahead with its decision and accept the consequences of it being found to commit an unfair labor practice.

****Source Article: http://www.fedweek.com/item-view.php?tbl=6&ID=8171****

Budget Cycle Starting Late

admin — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:25:41 +0000

The delay from early February to mid-March in submitting the annual White House budget proposal—which officials attribute to the series of budgetary uncertainties in recent times—will cause Congress to act more quickly than usual, possibly a sign that it will fall back on familiar proposals regarding federal employees. The first step in Congress after receiving that document is to prepare a budget outline, called a resolution, that is supposed to pass each chamber by April 15. The House has been doing that regularly and the Senate has said that it will do so this year for the first time in four years—due, in part, to language in the recently enacted debt ceiling relief law that would hold their salaries in escrow until they did pass such a measure. The past two House budget resolutions have proposed extending the federal salary rate freeze, requiring all employees to contribute about 5 percent more of salary toward retirement, and reducing the workforce by 10 percent through attrition. Similar proposals could be made this year, since the leadership of the key House committees is the same and the fiscal situation is more difficult, if anything.

****Source Article: http://www.fedweek.com/item-view.php?tbl=6&ID=8154****

Debt Ceiling Kicked Down the Road

admin — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:12:19 +0000

Congress and the White House have delayed one of the three budgetary threats that have been hanging over federal employees all year, by enacting a law setting aside the federal debt ceiling through May 18. While the limit technically already has been hit, the Treasury has been using several maneuvers – including one involving the TSP’s G fund and another involving the civil service retirement fund – to avoid a default. The Treasury would have reached the limit of such moves around the end of this month, and now can restore the G fund by reconstructing the securities that would have been issued had that fund not been “disinvested.” During its voting, the Senate set aside a proposal to offset any increases in the debt limit with spending cuts, as well as a plan to prevent partial government shutdowns related to budget deadlocks by extending spending authority automatically at current levels for four months, and then reducing spending unless permanent appropriations were enacted.

****Source Article: http://www.fedweek.com/item-view.php?tbl=6&ID=8141****

Some May Want to Adjust TSP Investments

admin — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:06:41 +0000

TSP investors may want to adjust their withholding amounts about this time of year due to the change in the maximum allowable investment, called the elective deferral limit, for this calendar year. That limit had been $17,000 last year but is $17,500 this year. Investors who wish to invest at the maximum will want to increase their investments accordingly. Also, all TSP investors may wish to check with their payroll office to see how many times in the new year investments will be sent to the TSP; typically the number is 26, but cycles vary in some agencies according to the servicing payroll provider. The key consideration is the dates agencies submit investments to the TSP, not pay cycle dates. FERS employees who invest at high levels should take care to structure their investments so that they are able to invest at least 5 percent of salary through the entire year, which captures the maximum government contributions.

****Source Article: http://www.fedweek.com/item-view.php?tbl=6&ID=8135****