cost of living adjustment

Federal retirees and folks who get Social Security benefits may be among the few people in the country who get anxious when crude oil prices drop.

Benefits expert Tammy Flanagan, will be Mike Causey’s guest today on Your Turn, airing 10 a.m. EDT, streaming on www.federalnewsnetwork.com or on 1500 AM in the Washington, D.C., area.

Some politicians have been after the Federal Employees Retirement System since it replaced the more generous Civil Service Retirement System program during the Reagan administration.

Years after the buyout surge of the 1990s some still-working feds are hanging on until the next round of buyouts. But that could take a while.

Several members of Congress have declared the President’s proposed cuts to federal employee retirement “dead on arrival,” while at least one Republican has expressed more of an interest in developing a new system for prospective employees.

Most of the House Republicans who repeatedly tried to cut costs in the massive FERS program are either gone from Congress or relegated by the 2016 midterm elections to minority status.

In today’s Federal Newscast, lawmakers want to hear from the Indian Health Service’s acting director about what he’s done to improve on an apparent failure of the agency to provide quality health care.

For federal workers the good news is that Congress approved a 1.9 percent raise for them despite the fact that the president wanted to freeze pay in 2019.

But if you don’t appreciate politicians trying to eliminate long-promised features of your Federal Employees Retirement System or Civil Service Retirement System packages fasten your seat belts.

If Uncle Sam kept a list of endangered workers, folks under the old Civil Service Retirement System would be at the top. Less than six of every 100 workers still on the payroll are under the system that was phased out in the mid 1980s.