The NARFE Halftime Report Legislative Accomplishments in the 117th Congress

Thanks to the combined efforts of NARFE members, leaders and staff, NARFE’s advocacy efforts saw several wins in the first half of the 117th Congress. The following are the highlights thus far, including safeguarding the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program, building support for repeal or reform of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), and celebrating NARFE’s centennial in Congress.

PROTECTING FEDERAL HEALTH BENEFITS IN POSTAL BILLS

• NARFE’s lobbying efforts led to significant changes in Postal bills, protecting the earned benefits of Postal Service retirees and preventing adverse impacts on federal employee and retiree premiums as a result of the bills. • Leading Postal bills from previous Congresses mandated that all current Postal

Service retirees enroll in Medicare Part B or lose their earned federal retiree health benefits. This would have forced retirees to incur additional costs for the continued receipt of benefits, changing the agreement after retirement and setting a dangerous precedent. However, in response to

NARFE’s advocacy, the leading

Postal bill introduced in this

Congress preserved choice for current Postal Service retirees, allowing them to decide whether to enroll in Medicare

Part B or not—without the threat of losing health insurance benefits. • The new bill changed the structure of the Federal

Employees Health Benefits

(FEHB) program, splitting Postal employees and most retirees into a separate risk pool. This change threatened to increase premiums for all federal employees and retirees. NARFE flagged this potential issue and pressed for actuarial analysis by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to measure the impact of the changes on FEHB premiums. In response to OPM’s analysis and NARFE’s concerns, Congress appeared poised, as of press time, to amend the bill to prevent unintended premium increases within FEHB.

NARFE CENTENNIAL RECOGNIZED BY CONGRESS

• NARFE’s centennial was formally celebrated by the

MARCH ACTION ALERT: URGE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO COSPONSOR WEP REFORM BILL

Please join NARFE’s campaign calling on members of the House of Representatives to cosponsor the Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act, H.R. 2337, legislation to reform the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). This long-standing, misguided provision reduces the Social Security benefits of nearly 2 million people nationwide. Use NARFE’s Legislative Action Center, located at www.narfe.org, to personalize a message to your Representative requesting his or her cosponsorship of the bill.

MYTH: Funds from NARFE’s general fund, including member dues, go to NARFE’s political action committee (PAC) and are used to defend earned benefits by electing Fed-friendly lawmakers. REALITY: No dues money or any general funds from NARFE go to any political candidate. Only member contributions designated specifically for NARFE-PAC go to the PAC, and only funds from the PAC can be used to help NARFE allies campaign for election. NARFE-PAC is a separate, segregated NARFE account that is funded solely through specific member contributions. Please consider contributing during this NARFE-PAC month so the PAC has the funds to defend the federal community in 2022.

Senate when S.Res.76, a resolution congratulating the National Active and

Retired Federal Employees

Association on the celebration of its 100th anniversary, passed the Senate via unanimous consent. • A separate bipartisan resolution celebrating 100 years of NARFE, H.Res.131, was also introduced in the

House of Representatives.

INCREASED SUPPORT FOR WEP/GPO REPEAL AND REFORM

• With NARFE’s support, legislation to fully repeal the Windfall Elimination

Provision (WEP) and the

Government Pension Offset (GPO) was introduced in the 117th Congress. The Social

Security Fairness Act, H.R. 82, had 242 cosponsors as of press time—a greater number of cosponsors than this legislation received at the same time during the last

Congress. This is also true of the legislation’s equivalent in the Senate, S. 1302. • Legislation to reform the

WEP penalty, H.R. 2337, the

Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act, had 185 cosponsors as of press time, 31 more cosponsors than the legislation gathered during the entirety of the previous

Congress. • The 117th Congress also saw a rise in the number of bills addressing the WEP and GPO, including the Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act, H.R. 5834, and the Wellbeing for Every Public Servant Act, H.R. 4788. Legislation reforming Social Security, Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust, H.R. 5723, also would repeal the WEP and GPO—after NARFE pushed for its inclusion in the bill.

SCHEDULE F EXECUTIVE ORDER RESCINDED

• With NARFE’s strong encouragement, President

Biden rescinded the previous administration’s Schedule

F executive order in his first week in office. The order had created a new federal employment category that threatened to politicize federal jobs and the delivery of services that the American people rely on. NARFE led a coalition of nearly 80 good government and federal employee groups in a push to block implementation of the order. Those efforts raised awareness of the issue and increased pressure to delay implementation of the order in the waning days of the previous administration while setting the stage for rescission of the order at the beginning of the new administration. • If the order had been fully implemented, tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of federal jobs could have been converted to the new Schedule F classification within the excepted service. The new schedule would have exempted reclassified employees from civil service rules and due process rights that ensure that federal employees are hired and fired based on merit, not their political connections or lack thereof.

SECURING A PAY RAISE FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES IN 2022

• NARFE helped secure a presidential alternative pay plan to increase federal employee pay in 2022 by an average 2.7 percent, at parity with the military and tracking with recent private sector pay increases. • NARFE also pushed to increase the number of cosponsors of the FAIR Act,

H.R. 392 and S. 561, a bill that would have pr0vided federal employees with a 3.2 percent average pay raise in 2022.

FEDERAL WORKER PROVISIONS INCLUDED IN COVID-19 RELIEF

• The American Rescue Plan,

H.R. 1319, which became law in March 2021, included

NARFE-supported provisions to ensure that front-line federal and Postal workers who contract COVID-19 are presumptively eligible for workers’ compensation.

Without this presumption of