{"id":1532607,"date":"2025-04-26T17:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T21:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1532607"},"modified":"2025-04-26T17:25:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T21:25:00","slug":"house-gop-seeks-federal-pension-cuts-including-lavish-benefit-for-early-retirees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/house-gop-seeks-federal-pension-cuts-including-lavish-benefit-for-early-retirees\/1532607\/","title":{"rendered":"House GOP Seeks Federal Pension Cuts, Including Lavish Benefit For Early Retirees"},"content":{"rendered":"

House GOP Seeks Federal Pension Cuts, Including Lavish Benefit For Early Retirees<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Already rattled by the Trump administration’s efforts to slash its bloated ranks, the US government employee workforce is about to be hit with a new source of agitation, as House Republicans are proposing to cut benefits and increase premiums associated with federal employee pensions<\/strong>.\u00a0As is typically the case where the timing of potentially controversial news is concerned, the announcement of the proposed cost-cutting moves came on Friday night, via House Oversight Committee and Government Reform Committee Chairman\u00a0James Comer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

House Republicans are working to identify at least $2 trillion in spending cuts to put a dent in the price of extending the broad tax cuts instituted by 2017’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA<\/a>), which is slated to expire<\/a> on Dec. 31. Comer said<\/a> the proposed changes to federal employee pensions would yield more than $50 billion in reduced net federal spending<\/a>. Engaging in the usual DC budgetary obfuscation<\/strong>, Comer’s statement doesn’t assign that number to a time period — knowing naive citizens and journalists will assume it’s a recurring annual benefit. However, from another document<\/a> circulating on Capitol Hill, we conclude he’s talking about savings over a 10-year period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said the proposal will deliver “a substantial win for fiscal responsibility”<\/strong> (Jacquelyn Martin – AP)<\/a><\/p>\n

The most substantial of the proposed changes would\u00a0increase pension premiums that longer-tenured employees pay into the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS).<\/strong>\u00a0Today, those premiums, which are automatically deducted from salary payments, vary by the year in which an employee entered federal service:<\/p>\n

2012 and earlier: 0.8%
\n\t2013: 3.1%
\n\t2014 and after: 4.4%<\/p>\n

The Oversight Committee proposal does away with that distinction, seeking to\u00a0charge all employees in the FERS system a uniform 4.4%,<\/strong>\u00a0raising $30.7 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. A little under half of federal employees are paying less than 4.4% today<\/a>, according to FEDweek.\u00a0<\/em>The rate hike is projected to boost revenue by $30.7 billion over 10 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another proposal takes aim at one of those rich government benefits that are virtually unheard-of in the private sector<\/strong>. Believe it or not, long-serving federal employees who retire with a full pension before Social Security age currently receive a supplemental payment on top of that calculated pension. The “FERS Annuity Supplement<\/a>” is supposed to approximate their age-62 Social Security income attributable to their federal employment. The head-scratchingly lavish goal: Saving early retirees from having to make do with less total money than they’ll eventually rake in at age 62<\/strong> — even though they’re receiving a full federal pension in the interim. Oversight Committee Republicans want to kill the supplement — except for federal employees in jobs subject to mandatory early retirement, such as federal cops and firefighters. (God forbid we apply austerity measures to these “heroes” retiring at 57 on a hefty, inflation-adjusted federal pension.<\/em>) Projected savings from this move: $10.1 billion over 10 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposed pension cuts are sure to spark backlash from federal employees and others who mindlessly defend them<\/strong> (Alex Wong\/Getty via Idaho Capital Sun<\/em><\/a>)<\/a><\/p>\n

A third move would change how pension payments are calculated<\/strong> in both FERS and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), the latter of which generally covers some employees hired before Jan. 1. 1984. Today’s formula keys off the average of a given employee’s highest three years of earnings; the committee wants to change that to the highest five years<\/strong>, projecting $4.75 billion in savings in 10 years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a non-pension move, the House GOP proposal also has a provision requiring a “comprehensive audit” of employee dependents currently enrolled in Federal Employees Health Benefits<\/strong> (FEHB) plans. By dis-enrolling ineligible relatives, it’s hoped the audit will save $1.5 billion over 10 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Oversight Committee will have a full markup meeting to consider, debate and potentially amend these and other cost-cutting proposals at 10am on Wednesday. Once finalized, they’ll be added to President Trump’s promised “big, beautiful bill”<\/strong> that Republicans hope to pass by summertime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meantime, here comes another round of leftist wailing and gnashing of teeth.<\/em>..<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 04\/26\/2025 – 13:25<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/house-gop-seeks-federal-pension-cuts-including-lavish-benefit-early-retirees<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House GOP Seeks Federal Pension Cuts, Including Lavish Benefit For Early Retirees Already rattled by the Trump administration’s efforts to slash its bloated ranks, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1532608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1532607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6qHt","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/61dca6634ede320018b6e5c6-fxy49C.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1532608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}