Federal pay freeze likely under new Congress, by Jeff Neal
(only excerpts presented here, see link for full article)
The 115th Congress began its work on Jan. 3. While control of the House and Senate did not change, the 115th is going to be sending legislation to a President who is more likely to sign it. That means civil service legislation that had little chance of surviving a presidential veto will be received by a (most likely) much more receptive President Donald Trump. So, what kind of legislation should we expect to see in the two-year term of the 115th? Which bills are Democrats likely to go to general quarters to try to stop? And what is likely to make its way to the President's desk and be signed? Following are six changes I believe we may see from this Congress.
1. Pay freeze. A pay freeze would most likely be passed under budget reconciliation procedures that would prohibit a filibuster in the Senate.
2. Revision of what constitutes "due process." There is a lot of support among federal employees, the public and politicians for making it easier to fire federal employees who are poor performers or who engage in misconduct.
I would expect to see a coalition of both Republicans and Democrats engaging on this issue, with a bipartisan solution likely to occur.
3. The "Holman Rule." This rule, recently adopted by the House majority, allows any member of the House to submit amendments to appropriations bills to retrench expenditures by (1) reducing amounts of money in the bill, (2) reducing the salaries of federal employees, or (3) reducing the compensation of any person paid by the Treasury.
I think it is likely we will see the rule applied on high profile targets, such as employees or agencies that get caught up in scandals. It is also likely that widespread use of the rule would cause the appropriations process (which is barely working already) to grind to a halt
4. Collective Bargaining.
5. Pay for Performance. Because pay for performance in place in numerous agencies already, and it has been passed before, I think this one is highly likely and it will get votes on both sides of the aisle.
6. Benefits. Federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) have something that few private sector employees have today — a "defined benefit" pension plan. Such plans were the norm in the U.S. for many years, but have been mostly replaced with "defined contribution" plans such as a 401(k). There have been multiple proposals in recent years to eliminate the defined benefit portion of FERS and move new hires (not existing employees) to a plan based entirely on Social Security and the Thrift Savings Plan. Many Democrats and some Republicans may object, but the average federal salary is $81,000, while the U.S. average is less than $50,000, and most of their constituents do not have defined benefit pensions. Even though there are some good reasons why the average federal worker makes more money, and one can argue that the government should try to set an example as an employer, it is likely this one would pass.
The first year of a party change in Washington puts a lot of issues on the table and it is unlikely everything would happen at once. A comprehensive civil service reform bill would take time and energy that the Congress may not want to devote to federal workforce issues. That means the most likely outcome is piecemeal legislation stretched out over both years of the 115th Congress.
Posted by: softbreeze@gmail.com
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