Congressman Subramanyam Fights Back as House Republicans Target Federal Worker Benefits

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Suhas Subramnayam offered an amendment during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform markup to protect the hard-earned retirement benefits of the federal workforce.

His amendment would strike a provision of House Republicans’ budget legislation that would reduce pay for long-serving federal employees by increasing their required retirement contributions without providing any additional benefits. Under the legislation, federal employees hired before 2014 would be required to contribute up to 3.6% more of their paycheck every month. The Congressman warned that Section 90001 would cause further losses of experienced talent in the federal workforce.

Congressman Subramanyam argued that changing benefits that were agreed to many years ago is unjust, and that there are better ways to make government more efficient without attacking the hard-earned retirement benefits federal employees have been paying into for their entire careers. The Congressman warned this would not only hurt local and national economies, but also undermine recruitment efforts for critical positions in the federal government, erode government effectiveness, increase long-term costs, and damage public trust.

In addition to increasing retirement contributions, the Republican legislation also proposes to eliminate supplemental retirement payments for federal employees who retire before age 62, change the federal retirement annuity formula to lower benefits for federal employees, and force civil servants to contribute an additional 5% towards their retirement each month without any increase in benefits unless they forfeit their merit-based civil service protections.

Congressman Subramanyam’s amendment was defeated on a party-line vote. The overall legislation advanced through the Committee by a one-vote margin, with one Republican joining all Democrats in voting no.

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