Wnited States Senate
WASHINGTON, DC 20510
June 13, 2018
The Honorable Jeff T-H. Pon
Director
Office of Personnel Management
1900 E Street, NW
Washington DC 201415
Dear Director Pon:
‘We write to you opposing the changes to federal employce retirement benefits included in your
May 4, 2018 letter to Speaker Paul Ryan, and to voice our strong concem for the impact these
proposals would have on the financial planning of active and retired federal employees and on
the federal government's ability to recruit and retain a strong civilian workforce.
Your letter calls for increased Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) contributions from
employees, eliminating the FERS supplement for employees who retire beginning in 2018,
basing retirement calculations on the average of the highest 5 years of salary instead of the
current 3, and reducing or eliminating cost-of-living adjustments. These proposals affect
employees who have dedicated decades of service to the federal government, and in the case of
the FERS supplement, employees who are required to retire early because of the physical
demands of their job, including Customs and Border Protection Officers, firefighters, and air
traffic controllers. It is clear that they would reduce the ability of employees to save going
forward and significantly alter the financial planning of federal workers, retirees, and their
families.
Our understanding is that your justification for these proposals is to bring federal employee
compensation in line with the private sector. The President's FY19 Budget justification for these
proposals states that federal employees are compensated with combined pay and benefits higher
than the private sector, relying solely on an April 2017 Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Report. This is a gross oversimplification of the findings and implications of that report. The
report concludes that total compensation costs among workers with a professional degree or
doctorate were actually 18 percent lower for federal employees than for similar private-sector
employees.' To further increase this differential would hamper our ability to hire experts in
mission-critical areas. Furthermore, CBO states that the scope of their analysis is limited to
selected benefits, and does not include, for example, the stock options that some private-sector
firms provide to their employees.
hoe co govt Svcongre2017-201Raprt2697detronepyTogether, the proposals you have made would cut $143 billion over ten years from federal
employee retirement programs, while offering nothing to employees in their place. We fear that
these cuts are motivated by an ongoing effort to balance the budget on the backs of federal
workers rather than an effort to provide a comprehensive approach to modernizing federal
‘employee compensation,
We are also concerned about the effects that these cuts would have on the federal government's
ability to recruit and retain top talent at agencies across the United States. As you know, just 17
percent of federal workers are under 35 years old, and nearly one-third of permanent carcer
federal employees will be eligible to retire next year.? At the same time, the 2017 Federal
Employee Viewpoint Survey, a government wide survey conducted by the Office of Personnel
‘Management, found that only 42 percent of federal employees feel they can recruit people with
the right skills.’ In the face of a potential brain drain from our federal agencies, and in a time
where top talent has a wide variety of options for global employment, we feel strongly that the
impact of across-the-board pay freezes and continued threats to eamed benefits will be
devastating to retention and recruitment, Modernizing the federal workforce and the package of
benefits offered to our federal employees is a worthy goal; however, if enacted, these proposals,
would not be a modernization, but would instead reverse course by making the federal
government a less attractive place to work.
As you continue to develop legislative proposals related to the compensation of federal
employees, we urge you to move past draconian cuts that harm the financial security of federal
employees in every state across the country, and instead commit to comprehensive reforms that
‘modernize our government’s compensation system in a way that encourages the best and
brightest talent to join the ranks of our dedicated civil servants. We would welcome the
opportunity to work with you in accomplishing that important goal.
Sincerely,
Mark R. Warner
United States Senator United States Senator
Thomas R. Carper Mazie K. Hirono
United States Senator United States Senator
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