Appropriations Bill Passes House on Way to Senate

Late yesterday, the House of Representatives approved H.R.2829, the FY 2008 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act. (Roll call 606)

Pay Raise –
The House approved a 3.5 percent pay increase for federal civilian employees and voted against an attempt to remove legislative language that imposes limits on federal contracting.

The NTEU supported 3.5 percent pay increase for federal employees matches the amount previously approved by the House and the Senate Armed Services Committee for members of the military. The increase is greater than the 3 percent proposed by the President.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley lauded the House vote. “Fair pay is the single most important factor toward recruiting and retaining quality federal employees,” she said. “It also would represent a small, but important, step in closing the pay gap between public and private sector employees, estimated at about 13 percent.”

NTEU also secured language ensuring that administration efforts to change pay systems at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense (DOD) would not prevent the 3.5 percent January pay raise for employees in those departments.

Contracting Out -
The approved legislation also levels the playing field in federal contracting out competitions despite an attempt on the floor to remove the provisions from the bill. The attempt to strike the A-76 reform provisions was defeated 268 to 158. (Roll call 586) It expands federal employee appeal rights in A-76 procedures, giving them the same rights presently enjoyed by private contractors to appeal agency decisions privatizing federal work. NTEU has long argued that federal workers should have the same right to appeal to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) – as an independent decision-maker – that private contractors have. Under present contracting rules, federal employees are limited to an appeal within their agency; the same agency which makes the A-76 decision in the first place.

The bill’s language also precludes private companies from reducing employee health benefits, or offering inferior retirement benefits, in order to reduce costs on their final contract bid. Finally, the legislation mandates that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cannot require or direct agencies to undertake A-76 competitions. The bill makes these provisions permanent changes in law.

Private Tax Collection -
The bill had language which would have allocated only $1,000.000 for the IRS private debt collection plan, an amount so low that it would have effectively killed the plan. Unfortunately, that language was removed from the bill before final passage.

NTEU is continuing to press for passage of separate legislation to remove the IRS’ authority to contract private debt collection companies. Those bills are H.R. 695 and S. 335. You can find out how you can help in that effort here and here.

Mikulski introduces LEO bill in Senate

Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD) has introduced legislation that would extend to Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPOs) the designation of federal law enforcement officer. S. 1354, the Law Enforcement Officers Retirement Equity Act is a companion measure to a bipartisan proposal in the House—H.R. 1073—introduced by Reps. Bob Filner (D-CA) and John McHugh (R-NY).

Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) have joined Senator Mikulski as cosponsors on S. 1354.

Every day CBP Officers stand on the front lines in the war to stop the flow of drugs, pornography and illegal contraband into the United States. Concurrently Revenue Officers of the IRS face dangerous situations as they enforce the United States Tax Code and collect delinquent taxes. Given the significance of these jobs, it is vitally important that CBP Officers and IRS Revenue Officers remain competitive with other state and local law enforcement agencies.

Please email your Senators asking them to cosponsor S. 1354 that would provide law enforcement officer status to CBP Officers in DHS and Revenue Officers of the IRS.

3.5% Pay Raise Closer, but still a Long Way Away

On Thursday, with a vote of 397-27, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1585, the Department of Defense’s Authorization Act for fiscal year 2008 which includes the 3.5 percent military pay raise. This is ½ percent above the President’s proposed increase of 3 percent. It is a significant for federal employees who have received pay parity with the military in recent years. The Senate Armed Services subcommittees will begin marking up their version of the authorization bill next week.

While the military pay raise still needs to be considered by the House and Senate appropriations committees where it is conceivable that a lower level could be appropriated, this development is important. It sets a significant precedent for the 3.5 percent pay raise when appropriators consider legislation funding federal employees’ FY 2008 pay raise. That bill, called the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, is expected to be marked up in the House prior to the DOD’s appropriations bill.

There is still a long way to go, however, and ongoing efforts calling for a 3.5 percent pay raise for both groups is making an impact. We need to continue to fight for an identical 3.5 percent pay raise for federal employees.

You can join the fight by sending a letter to your member of Congress.

Law Enforcement or Not?...... (updated)

Every day Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPO) are the nation’s first line of defense against terrorism and the smuggling of illegal drugs and contraband at our borders and in our ports. CBP Officers at any moment may be called upon to either take a life or give their own, yet under existing law they do not enjoy Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) status.

In addition, Revenue Officers of the IRS face dangerous situations as they enforce the United States Tax Code and collect delinquent taxes. Most people see these individuals as law enforcement officers, and many have reacted to their inquiries with threats, assaults, and in some cases gunfire. Yet, these men and women too are being denied the rights and benefits of their colleagues who are considered to be law enforcement officers.

The question is, “Are these men and women Law Enforcement Officers or not?”

I would bet most of you reading this think the men and women working in these vital federal employee jobs are law enforcement officers and answered the above question with, “Of course they are!”

The fact is, when it comes to retirement eligibility and pensions, they are not considered Law Enforcement Officers!

H. R. 1073 would correct this inequity and grant CPBO's and IRS Revenue Officers, law enforcement officer (LEO) status under Sections 8331 and 8401 of Title 5 of the United States Code. Given the recent focus in Congress on immigration and border security, now is the time to ask your Representatives to cosponsor H. R. 1073 - The Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act. (Click here to send a letter to Congress.)

CBP Officers are the nation’s first line of defense against terrorism and the smuggling of illegal drugs and contraband at our borders and in our ports. Providing enhanced retirement benefits to law enforcement personnel in DHS is critical to both the functioning of the new department and to the security of the American public. Currently, newer hires to the CBP are highly susceptible to the pull of enhanced retirement benefits and higher salaries offered by state and local law enforcement agencies. They have received costly training and on-the-job experience within DHS, but they know they deserve to be rewarded for the dangers and risks they are exposed to every day. Very often, talented young officers treat CBP as a stepping-stone to other law enforcement agencies with more generous retirement benefits either at the federal, state, or local level.

Concurrently, while Revenue Officers of the IRS face dangerous situations as they enforce the United States Tax Code and collect delinquent taxes, these men and women are being denied the rights and benefits of their colleagues who are considered to be law enforcement officers.

Given the significance of these jobs, it is vitally important that the CBP Officers and IRS Revenue Officers remain competitive with other state and local law enforcement agencies in the recruitment and retention of first-rate personnel.

Please email your member of Congress asking them to cosponsor H. R. 1073 which will provide law enforcement officer status for CBP Officers in DHS and Revenue Officers of the IRS.

Update - White House says "Not!".....

Yesterday, (May 9th) the House approved H.R. 1684, the DHS fiscal 2008 authorization bill by a vote of 296-126.

The White House issued a veto threat, because, among other reasons, the bill contains a provision that would repeal personnel flexibilities given to DHS in the Homeland Security Act (HSA) of 2002. The threat was contained in a White House Statement of Administration Policy. (SAP)

The SAP also took aim at language in H.R. 1684 that would grant law enforcement officer (LEO) status to CBP Officers, extending to them an option for early retirement. (This would only apply to those positions created on/after DHS was established, and would not cover legacy Customs employees or IRS Revenue Officers.)

The administration claimed that CBPO’s do not meet the definition of law enforcement officer.

“That is a mistaken assertion,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents more than 14,000 employees in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

An angry President Kelley brushed aside the White House arguments. “In their daily work, CBP Officers risk their lives protecting our country,” she said. “They are armed and trained in the use of firearms; they perform critically-important security duties at the nation’s air, land and sea ports; they have arrest authority; and they are all too often called upon to defend themselves against terrorists, drug smugglers and other criminals.”

Kelley added that “this veto threat shows that this administration is willing to put its animosity toward fair treatment for (federal) workers over the interest of national security.”

“The continued denial of LEO status for these deserving officers is nothing less than an outrage,” President Kelley said. “I can assure this White House that NTEU will not give up our battle to right this wrong.”

Join Ms. Kelley in this ongoing battle. Please email your member of Congress asking them to cosponsor H. R. 1073 which will provide law enforcement officer status for CBP Officers in DHS and Revenue Officers of the IRS.

Dueling “Dears” ….

April 23, Senator Grassley (R-IA) sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to his fellow senators in support of the IRS’s private tax collection program and speaking against legislation which would end the misguided program. (S. 335) A copy of Senator Grassley’s letter can be found here.

April 27, Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Patty Murray (D-WA) circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter to Senators in an effort to generate support for their legislation, (S. 335) that would prevent the IRS from using private collection agencies to collect federal taxes. (A copy of their letter can be found here.).The IRS has stated their intention to expand the private tax collection program to include an additional three to five contractors by the end of the year. Therefore it is critical that additional cosponsors are added to the Dorgan-Murray legislation now to prevent the IRS from going forward with its plan to expand this misguided program. To find out how you can help, please go to: http://www.capwiz.com/nteu, or click here.NTEU is working with some of our supporters in the Senate to refute claims put forth in by Grassley in his Dear Colleague letter and to end the private tax collection program once and for all.

Are you worth 3.5% more?

The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees has joined with a coalition of organizations representing members of the military and their families in calling for a 3.5 percent pay raise in fiscal 2008 for military personnel.

That raise would be half-a-percentage point higher than the three percent raise proposed by the administration for next year for both those in the military and members of the civilian federal workforce.

In letters to every member of the military personnel subcommittees of both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said the higher raise would help close the pay gap between these two groups of public servants and the private sector.

The NTEU leader noted that the Defense Authorization Act for fiscal years 2000 and 2004 both required that pay increases for military personnel equal the annual increase in the Employment Cost Index (ECI), plus one-half of one percent. “That standard has been used in every year of the current administration until 2007,” she said, “when military personnel received only a 2.2 percent raise.” Citing the military coalition’s March 1 testimony before the House Military Personnel Subcommittee, she said the 2.2 percent figure was the smallest pay increase for the military in 13 years and occurred at a time “when troops are putting their lives on the line every day for the rest of America.”

Like the military, President Kelley said, “federal civilian workers serve their country faithfully and are facing a widening pay gap.”

Despite the existence of the 1990 Federal Employee Pay Comparability Act—which was intended to close, in stages over 10 years, the public-private pay gap—such a gap remains; at present, she said, federal employee pay is, on average, 13 percent less than that of their private sector counterparts.

In her letter to the House and Senate members, the NTEU leader reminded them that in nearly every year over the past two decades, there have been “equal adjustments in military and civilian pay” to help close the pay gap for these two groups of federal workers.

The pay raise is one of the important issues under consideration in both sides of Congress. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees continue to hold hearings on federal agencies’ budgets for Fiscal Year 2008 and in the upcoming weeks legislation addressing federal employees’ and military pay will be proposed. In addition to deliberations by the subcommittees with jurisdiction over the federal employee pay, the military pay raise is being considered by the House and Senate Subcommittees on Defense Appropriations and by the Armed Services authorizing committees.

Please email your Members of Congress requesting them to write to the Chairs of the House and Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Appropriations in support of a 3.5% pay raise for federal employees.

If at first you don't suceed.....

I attempted to get this blog started a year ago. I gave up too soon before it could find its audience. I have been inspired to give it another try.

Many of you know I am the Legislative Coordinator for Chapter 032 of the National Treasury Employee’s Union (NTEU) in Denver. I send out a weekly legislative update to a distribution list of interested federal employees and retirees across the country in various agencies, but primarily in the IRS.

There are many topics and issues we can not discuss or send through official email. I was encouraged to create this blog where YOU can more fully participate, interact with each other, and express your opinions.

It will only be of interest to you, if you participate....
I encourage you to visit the blog frequently and keep coming back to it. It will take a few weeks for it to be "found" and begin to take off. It will only be of interest to you, if you participate. I urge you to encourage participation by your friends and coworkers in all federal agencies. Your involvement and interaction will make this a more informative space and more valuable to yourself and others. My desire is that through this blog, federal employees and retirees throughout all agencies will become more fully informed and more actively involved in the legislative process. Your feedback and comments to my posts and interaction with others is encouraged.

David R. Larkin


Bills of interest to federal employees and retirees we are currently tracking in the 110th Congress include:

• H.R. 82 and S. 206: To amend Title II of the Social Security Act to repeal the government pension offset and windfall elimination.
• H.R. 695 and S. 335: To Repeal Authority for Private Tax Collection.
• H.R. 985: Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007 (Passed House 03/14/2007 by vote of 331 – 94; received in Senate 03/15/2007, referred to Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs)
• H.R. 1073: To provide law enforcement status/20-year retirement option for Customs Inspectors and IRS Revenue Officers.
• H.R. 1110 and S. 773: To allow Federal civilian and military retirees to pay health premiums on a pretax basis and to allow a deduction for TRICARE supplemental premiums.
• H.R. 1256: To increase the government contribution for federal employee’s health insurance from 72% to 80%.
• S. 1000: To enhance the Federal Telework Program.