House Republican Budget Proposal Impacts Federal Pay, Benefits to Cut Costs
A prominent group of House Republican lawmakers unveiled a new plan to balance the budget within seven years.
In a 2024 budget proposal called “Protecting America’s Economic Security,” the leaders of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), which counts about three-quarters of House Republicans as members, say they can reduce spending by more than $16 trillion over ten years and reduce taxes by more than $5.1 trillion over ten years.
RSC Chairman Kevin Hern (R-OK) said, “Our budget proves that fiscal responsibility is the only way to lower inflation, grow the economy, cut federal spending, empower taxpayers, and protect small businesses.”
The plan is made up of more than 220 individual bills and initiatives from members.
Federal Worker Pay, Benefits
The proposal takes aim at federal employee pay, with the report saying the private sector pay practices are more “efficient” and the federal government employees receive an average of 17 percent more in total compensation (including benefits), than private sector counterparts.
The budget proposal aims to change that by offering a slew of reforms including eliminating automatic raises in favor of merit-based raises, imposing limits on the size and number of bonuses, and reforming leave policies to match the value of benefits paid by the private sector. In addition, it hints that at reforms to the General Schedule, saying that “Congress should reform the federal pay scale to attract and reward high skilled, highly productive federal workers, and stop overpaying less qualified employees.”
Republicans say these collective reforms could save the government over $132 billion over the next decade.
In terms of retirement benefits, retiree annuity benefits would be calculated using the average of the highest five years of an employee’s salary instead of the current three, it would reduce or eliminate the annual cost of living adjustment for retirees, increase the amount federal workers have to contribute toward the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS), and eliminate the FERS supplement for employees who retire before Social Security kicks in at age 62.
Health benefits would be shifted to a premium system, where the government pays a flat sum, and the employee pays the rest.
Civil Service Protections on the Chopping Block
The proposal includes a number of provisions to reduce civil service protections. It endorses legislation to reduce the firing process to 30 days and limit appeals. It also called for a repeal of President Biden’s Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce, which promoted participation in labor unions and rescinded President Trump’s Schedule F Order, which converted federal workers with policy-making authority into at-will employees.
Federal employees’ groups denounced the proposed budget. National Treasury Employee Union (NTEU) National President Tony Reardon called it “an unconscionable broadside.”