Advocacy Roundup: Pay Parity, RMD Suspension, First Responder Fair RETIRE Act

MYTH: NARFE endorses candidates running for the House and Senate. REALITY: NARFE is a nonpartisan organization and does not endorse candidates running for Congress. However, NARFE does produce a congressional voting scorecard to provide members with information on how their legislators voted on NARFE-related legislation, but this scorecard does not represent any form of endorsement or lack thereof. You can find the 2021-2022 scorecard beginning on p. 47 of this issue. Also, NARFE’s political action committee, NARFE-PAC, supports the campaigns of numerous congressional candidates, but NARFE-PAC is a separate fund of NARFE made of voluntary contributions rather than dues or general fund money.

bill was placed on the House Consensus Calendar, queuing it up for a possible vote. By the time this magazine hits mailboxes, the bill may have received a House vote; if it keeps the 290 cosponsors and the Committee on Ways & Means does not mark the bill up, it should. Only time will tell.

While NARFE has been advocating for repeal of WEP and GPO for decades, we’ve secured a potential path to either a House floor vote or committee action for the first time ever. That’s thanks to participation of NARFE members across the country contacting their members of Congress, the hard work of NARFE officers meeting with lawmakers, and the continued advocacy from NARFE staff who are lobbying Congress directly and coordinating grassroots advocacy.

Keep an eye on NARFE NewsLine for the latest from Congress on this issue.

—HANNAH MCLAIN, GRASSROOTS AND PROGRAMS ASSISTANT

For several months, NARFE’s advocacy department has been working to promote further advancement of certain bills and proposals, including pay parity for federal employees, the suspension of required minimum distributions (RMDs) from qualified retirement accounts, and the First Responder Fair RETIRE Act.

PAY PARITY FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES

On July 11, NARFE National President Ken Thomas sent a letter to Congress voicing his support for parity of pay rate increases for civilian and uniformed military personnel for fiscal year 2023. In the letter to congressional appropriations leaders, Thomas noted that Congress should take into consideration that high inflation rates not only affect military personnel, but also civilian federal workers. Should Congress consider a higher pay rate increase for military personnel due to high inflation, the same consideration should be given to federal employees. As NARFE’s advocacy department continues to push pay parity, we also count on our members to give their representatives a call, as well as send emails, or even arrange meetings (virtually or in person) to emphasize the importance of this proposition. All this information can be found on NARFE’s Legislative Action Center for members’ convenience.

RMD SUSPENSION

Due to high inflation rates and market instability, Thomas issued a letter to Congress on July 8, detailing his support for suspending required minimum distributions (RMDs) in 2022 from retirement savings accounts, including the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). With market highs coming at the end of 2021, seniors will be forced to withdraw a far greater percentage of their retirement accounts than expected or face a punishing 50 percent tax penalty. Thomas expressed that in previous times market downturn, such as with COVID-19, Congress has reacted appropriately in relation to RMDs. Currently, NARFE continues to advocate for the suspension of RMDs to better protect retirees living on fixed incomes.

FIRST RESPONDER FAIR RETIRE ACT

Introduced on January 28, 2021, by Rep. Connolly, (D-VA), the First Responder Fair