Key Federal Workforce Initiatives Suffer Setback in Congress
Monday, July 27, 2009(National Federation of Federal Employees)
Last week, an effort
to advance several key federal workforce
initiatives in Congress suffered a major
setback after the amendment was withdrawn from
consideration in the Senate’s version of the
Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Authorization bill.
The amendment, introduced
by Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) was unexpectedly
filibustered by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), and
was ultimately withdrawn from consideration
last Thursday. The Akaka amendment contained
provisions that would give Federal Employee
Retirement System (FERS) employees credit for
unused sick leave, allow federal workers
returning to federal service to redeposit
contributions to the retirement trust fund, and
extend locality pay to federal workers in
Alaska, Hawaii and the
territories.
This is not the first
time such initiatives have been brushed aside
in Congress. Just a few short months ago,
similar language was removed from the Family
Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
before its eventual passage. Though this
represents a setback, there is still hope for
getting these crucial initiatives passed.
The House’s version of
the Defense Authorization bill, which passed in
late June, still includes the aforementioned
federal workforce provisions. NFFE is pushing
hard to ensure that these provisions survive
conference and get signed into law once a final
bill is passed.
“We still need all our
members weighing in with their elected
officials on this legislation,” said NFFE
Legislative Director Randy Erwin. “We
will have one more chance at this when the
Defense Authorization bill goes to
conference. We need to show a lot of
grassroots support for the provisions we have
been fighting for.”