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JUNE 28 UPDATE:

Senate Republicans have released the text for their budget reconciliation bill. The text no longer includes any language that changes the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS), makes newly hired federal employees at-will, charges unions for official time, adds a fee for filing MSPB claims, or gives the executive branch unchecked authority for reorganization agencies and reducing the federal workforce. Therefore, we are suspending this Congressional email campaign. The removal of anti-federal government, anti-civil service, and ant-federal worker provisions from the budget reconciliation bill is victory for federal civil servants and the American people, one that would not have been possible without advocacy from people like you.

IFPTE is opposing the Senate's budget reconciliation bill as it harms working Americans and communities throughout the U.S. with policies that will result in 16 million Americans losing healthcare, 2.9 million Americans losing food assistance, state and local governments being banned from regulating AI for 10 years, and burden state and local governments with reduced federal support. We are grateful that we were able to defend the federal government, the federal workforce, and federal unions from attacks in the budget reconciliation bill, and we will continue to defend IFPTE members in the federal sector and the civil service in the months ahead.

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This Congressional Email Campaign is no longer active. The information below is for archival purposes.

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Over the past several weeks, IFPTE and IFPTE members, federal workers, and labor allies have advocated for House and Senate Republicans to remove legislative text from the budget reconciliation bill that include attacks to federal employee retirement benefits, cuts take home pay for new hires, federal worker union rights, and eviscerates anti-corruption civil service protections.

The public outreach to Congressional Republicans has been extremely effective and resulted in removing the worst of the attempts to cut Federal Employee Retirement System benefits in the House budget reconciliation bill.  Originally, the House's budget reconciliation bill included provisions that would make all federal employees pay the 4.4% contribution rate to FERS and new hires would have to elect to be "at will" or pay a 9.4% FERS contribution rate to maintain civil service protections as well as change federal retiree’s annuity payment from the current highest three years of pay to the highest five earning years. Both of those harmful provisions were removed from the House Budget Reconciliation bill due to GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY.

Now, as Senate Republicans continue drafting their budget reconciliation bill, we need to make sure Senators ask Republican Leadership to remove provisions that will 1) charge federal unions for representing federal workers and bankrupt federal unions; 2) cut take home pay for new hires by 11.2% (through an increase in the FERS contribution rate for new federal employees), 3) institute a new 10% tax on charities and unions that receive funds from federal employees' payroll deductions, and 4) charge federal employees for filing cases at the Merit System Protection Board (MSPB).

These provisions will significantly reduce compensation for new federal employees, cripple labor unions in the federal sector, and create a financial barrier for appealing partisan and prohibited personnel practices to the MSPB -- this is clearly an effort to make working for the federal government unappealing, making federal compensation noncompetitive with the private sector, and driving civil servants to leave federal employment.This is not just an attack on federal unions, civil services, and the government services and agencies that Americans count on, this is a fundamental attack on government for the people, by the people, and of the people.

The special rules for budget reconciliation bills allow the legislation to pass the Senate with a simple majority and exclude any 60-vote or three-fifths supermajority filibuster threshold to advance the bill to a final vote. This budget reconciliation bill is being crafted by the majority party in the House and Senate and can pass and be enacted with only Republican votes in both chambers of Congress, but your outreach can influence what Republican lawmakers choose to include.

Many of these provisions have already been deemed as inappropriate for the a budget reconciliation bill, which is meant to be a narrowly focused on tax, revenues, and strictly budget impacting legislative provisions -- not legislating policy provisions.  

The provisions that Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Republicans have included in their budget reconciliation proposal include:

• Section 90105  -- The agency charge for official time and resources
  returns without the enforcement mechanism and without “determinations not subject to review,” and a carve-out for unions representing 51% of “members” who are under Section 8423(a)(1)(B) excluded. Previous version of this section was ruled in violation of Byrd Rule.
• Section 90101 -- 15.6% FERS for new hires (11.2% cut in take-home pay for new federal workers), with Members of Congress and Congressional employees excluded from this FERS contribution increase/pay cut. Previous version of this section was ruled in violation of Byrd Rule.
• Section 90104 -- 10% tax on charities and unions for funds received through federal employee payroll deductions.
• Section 90102 – Federal employees filing an appeal at the MSPB would pay the equivalent to the fees for filing a lawsuit in federal court ($405 per filing). Previous version of this section was ruled in violation of Byrd Rule.

Federal employees are already facing a Trump Administration that is dismantling government agencies and laying off federal workers who perform critical functions and provide important services. So many IFPTE members in the federal workforce are already taking a pay cut to work for the federal government and serve the public. The Senate provisions that attack federal unions ability to function, cut take home pay for any new hires by 11.2%, and and create obstacles to accessing civil service protections that protect the public will end up triggering an exodus of experienced and skilled federal workers and hollow out agencies that provide essential services and functions. Congress needs to hear from everyday Americans that lawmakers should be preserving the government’s ability to recruit and retain the best talent America has to offer to address the challenges our nation faces, support our national security and economic prosperity, provide the American people with high-quality services, and keep our communities safe.

Email Your Representative and Senators and urge them to oppose any cuts to federal employees' retirement benefits, any reductions to take-home pay, and any effort to force newly hired federal employees to choose between pay and civil service protections.

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NOTE: Only your first name and state will appear at the bottom of the letters you send to your Congressional lawmakers. If you wish to include your full name and address in the letter, please add it at the bottom of the letter.

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Background on House Budget Reconciliation: On Thursday, May 22, the House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation bill that eliminates the FERS Supplement benefit for federal employees who are retired and at the minimum retirement age and under age 62. That budget reconciliation bill requires new federal employee hires choose to be “at will” employees without merit system protections or choose to maintain merit system protections and pay an extra 5% of salary towards FERS for the entirety of their federal career.

Originally, the House's budget reconciliation bill included provisions that would make all federal employees pay the 4.4% contribution rate to FERS and new hires would have to elect to be "at will" or pay a 9.4% FERS contribution rate to maintain civil service protections as well as change federal retiree’s annuity payment from the current highest three years of pay to the highest five earning years.  

Both of those harmful provisions were removed from the House Budget Reconciliation bill due to GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY -- federal employee households, union members, and the public contacting their Congressional Representatives urging them to remove these attacks on federal compensation and on merit protections that are there to protect the public.

Background on Senate Governmental Affairs Provisions that were removed by the Senate Parliamentarian: IFPTE had told Senators that the provisions below should not be included in the budget reconciliation bill. Before Senate Republicans could include any of these provisions in the final text of the Senate budget reconciliation bill, Senate Democrats brought these provisions to the Senate Parliamentarian, who is a nonpartisan legal expert who judges whether legislative text violates the Byrd Rule and is not germane to the budget reconciliation bill. During the week of July 22, the Senate Parliamentarian reviewed and advised that the provisions IFPTE opposed be removed from the simple majority vote under the budget reconciliation process. The Parliamentarian's judgement was a win for good governance and included removing the following provisions:

• REMOVE Sec. 90101. Federal employees appointed to new positions will be "at will" employees without civil service protections and will pay 9.4% of their pay towards their FERS pension (currently new hires pay 4.4% of salary to FERS). These newly hired federal employees could elect to have civil service protections, but they will have to pay 14.4% of their pay to FERS. At will employees can be fired without cause and we could see a deeply damaging politicization of the civil service where federal workers are hired and fired for political purposes. This provision both destroys the merit-based apolitical civil service and federal sector job quality, making it impossible for the government to recruit the best and brightest workers who could make much more in the private sector. Ultimately, this hurts taxpayers and the American public because merit principles and civil service protections protect the public from corruption and favoritism.
  

• REMOVE Sec. 90105. Federal employees will be offered bonuses for "cost cutters" for reporting employees and and essential programs that should be targeted for cuts. Instead of achieving efficiency and workplace improvements through federal labor unions and agency management working together on solutions, federal employees will be encouraged to identify "surplus salaries and expense" and receive up to $10,000 awards   This provision completely undermines collaborative workplace culture or protected whistleblowing and reporting of corruption. Instead, this policy is likely to end up incentivizing a toxic work environment where employees are rewarded for targeting coworkers.  

• REMOVE Sec. 90106. Labor unions will be charged total employee compensation costs for official time, any use of resources, and any other charges, and these charged costs will not be subject to review or appeal by the union. This will bankrupt federal employee unions who use official time for union representation, including for grievance and arbitration, bargaining, and working in partnership with management to improve agency operations. Unions and collective bargaining in the federal government help create high-performance workplaces, improve productivity, resolve disputes efficiently, and are in the public interest -- but this provision intends to destroy federal unions, deny agencies the ability to work collaboratively with the workforce on productivity gains, and weaken the American labor movement.
  
  
• REMOVE Sec. 90107. Congress will surrender significant authorities over federal agencies to the President.  This provision transfers Congressional authority, oversight, and roles in organizing and establishing agencies to the President.  This would let the Trump Administration send plans to massively cut federal agency functions and headcounts to Congress but those plans could be enacted without Congressional approval.  This provision provides a blank check to allow unconstitutional Trump Administration cuts to federal agencies and the federal workforce without any Congressional approval or oversight.