National Association of Postal Supervisors Legislative & Regulatory Update October 29, 2009
FERS Sick Leave Credit Becomes Law
It's official. Postal and federal employees who retire under the Federal Employees Retirement System will receive credit for their unused sick leave when they retire. The new benefit, along with several other civil service pay and retirement provisions, was included in the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act that President Obama signed into law on Thursday.
Under the new law, sick leave credit for FERS-covered employees will be phased-in over the next four years, with new retirees receiving a 50 percent credit for unused sick leave from now until Dec. 31, 2013. Effective January 1, 2014, FERS-covered employees will receive full credit. The incremental approach toward implementation of the FERS sick leave benefit was necessitated by the added costs of the new benefit and the other new civil service provisions.
Enactment of the FERS sick leave benefit marks a victory for NAPS and other federal and postal employee groups who have worked hard for years to foster productivity, deter sick leave abuse and provide rough parity with treatment of sick leave by employees in the Civil Service Retirement System. Employees covered by CSRS already receive credit for sick leave when they retire.
NAPS President Ted Keating extended his thanks to President Obama, along with Rep. James Moran (D-VA), the long-time champion of the FERS sick leave provision, as well as Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY), Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-AK), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), and Sen. James Webb (D-VA). Keating also gave credit to the many NAPS members who lobbied Congress on the issue.
The Defense authorization measure also includes other civil service provisions:
-- Making it easier for federal agencies to rehire federal retirees on a limited, part-time basis, without requiring them to take a cut in their retirement pension;
-- Allowing FERS-covered employees who left and returned to government service to redeposit savings in the retirement system and earn credit for years they already worked in government;
-- Phasing-in a locality-based pay system for federal and postal employees who live and work in Hawaii, Alaska, Virgin Islands and the U.S. Territories.
NAPS to Congress: Protect FEHBP in Health Care Bills
As action on health care legislation heats up and House and Senate leaders prepare to bring bills to the floor, NAPS last week joined with sixteen other federal and postal employee and retiree organizations to caution the Congress against proposals that would harm the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program and the 9 million postal and federal employees, retirees and their family members who participate in the program.
In an October 23 letter to all United States Senators, the federal and postal employee groups insisted upon "the preservation of FEHBP as a program designed principally for federal and postal employees and retirees" and warned against "proposals circulating or pending in the Senate that would have adverse, even disastrous consequences for FEHBP." The groups opposed:
-- A proposal by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), originally raised in the Senate Finance Committee, that would require all federal and postal employees, as well as Members of Congress and Congressional staff, to participate in the insurance exchanges. "If such a proposal were accepted on the floor," the groups noted, "FEHBP as currently constituted would case to exist." "Without its active federal employee base and risk pool, FEHBP could become a retiree-only plan, which would be prohibitively expensive to retirees."
-- A proposal by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), that may be introduced as an amendment on the Senate floor, that would permit non-federal or non-postal employees or retirees to participate in the FEHBP. The amendment, according to Wyden, would permit entry to FEHBP by those who would be exempt from the mandate that individuals secure health care coverage. In arguing against the Wyden proposal, the groups said, "While we believe that all Americans should have access to comprehensive and affordable health care, any proposal to open the FEHBP to the public must include risk pools separated by a firewall between the federal/postal community and the general public. Otherwise, this amendment would dramatically alter the existing risk pool ... [c]osts to the FEHBP would soar, premiums would skyrocket, and federal/postal employees and retirees would ultimately be responsible for subsidizing a higher-risk, non-federal population."
-- The Senate Finance Committee's creation of an excise tax on higher-cost employer-provided insurance plans. The federal/postal employee groups warned that while the tax may not hit federal and postal employees today, they likely will become subject to the tax by 2013, when the law becomes effective, or soon thereafter. The tax is not indexed to rises in medical inflation. "Clearly, many federal employees would be rapped by this proposal that ostensibly is intended to tax the wealthy, not middle-income federal and postal employees and retirees," the groups said in the letter. "The most likely outcome of the excise tax would be a move by many insurance companies to reduce coverage and plan benefits or they would pass the cost of the tax on to FEHBP enrollees in increased premiums."
The 2010 Senate Races: Who's Up for Reelection?
Democratic Incumbents Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania
Open Seats Created by Retiring Senators Mel Martinez (R) of Florida Roland Burris (D) of Illinois Sam Brownback (R) of Kansas Jim Bunning (R) of Kentucky Kit Bond (R) of Missouri George Voinovich (R) of Ohio
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Bruce Moyer NAPS Legislative Counsel
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