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With the President's fiscal 2018 budget expected later this week, lawmakers and federal employee unions are gearing up for what could be a long and contentious fight over civilian agency spending and possible cuts to other federal employee programs. The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association says the 2018 budget is its biggest challenge this year.
The CPI-E Act would require federal retirement programs to use the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E) when calculating cost-of-living adjustments. Currently the CPI used is the one for workers.
Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says low TSP fees may actually save federal workers money in the long run.
This year, NARFE and other groups believe they will face a hard fight protecting feds and retirees from changes in their health program.
John Hancock Life & Health Insurance Company, OPM's provider for the Federal Long Term Care Program, said "a confluence of factors" led to the sudden and drastic increases in premiums for 2017.
Open Season for the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program kicks off Nov. 14 and runs through Dec. 12. Participants have about month to make changes to their health plans. But experts say only 6 percent of federal employees and retirees typically choose to make a change.
Election Day can be a whirlwind of campaign signs, crowded polling sites and an avalanche of social media posts. To help cut through the chaos, here's Federal News Radio's roundup of congressional races, presidential platforms and Hatch Act reminders.
Roughly 540,000 of the 1.9 million calls the Office of Personnel Management's Retirement Services received from federal annuitants in fiscal 2015 were abandoned, OPM's inspector general found. The IG also said Retirement Services is not meeting its goal to process all written inquires within 60 days or less.
Every year during Open Season only a small number of federal workers and retirees change health plans, but Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says what if your plan dropped you?
The Postal Service wants to set up its own health plan for workers and Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says non-postal workers should pay attention.
Most Federal Long Term Care Program policyholders chose to accept higher premiums or took advantage of special benefit reduction options during this summer's enrollee decision period. Premiums rose for about 264,000 active and retired federal employees by as much as 126 percent.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is concerned about four agencies that had particularly high retirement processing error rates in September. The Social Security Administration and departments of Agriculture, Interior and Veterans Affairs topped the list. Congress now wants the Government Accountability Office to review the process that agencies and the Office of Personnel Management each use to review a retirement claim.
What might a Trump administration look like for federal managers? What would another Clinton in the Executive Office mean? Regardless of who wins the presidential election, by Nov. 9 the government workforce needs to be ready to go in any direction.
The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association released its voting scorecard for the 114th Congress. The scorecard includes a breakdown of votes from each congressional member and how they stacked up to NARFE's position on various legislation impacting the federal workforce.