NFFE Calls for Conference on Tobacco Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Randy Erwin, Legislative Director

Phone: (202) 257-0948

Washington, D.C. – Today, Richard N. Brown, National President of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), a union representing 100,000 federal employees nationwide, sent an urgent letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling for the conference of H.R. 1256, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

The bill, passed by the House in early April, contains a number of provisions concerning federal employee retirement, leave, and recruitment policies. However, the Senate version (S.982), passed earlier today, was stripped of these crucial provisions, leaving essential federal workforce issues off the table.

“The House version of the bill contained several provisions that are of great importance to the federal workforce, and they are too important to let fall by the wayside,” said Brown in his letter to the Speaker. “We are very discouraged to see these critical provisions excluded from the Senate version of the bill, but we believe they will be agreed upon and included in a final version of the bill should it go to conference.”

The House could move forward with the Senate version of the bill as early as tomorrow should conference not be held. NFFE strongly supports the House version of the bill.

“This bipartisan legislation addresses chronic federal workforce issues that have weakened recruitment, undermined retention, and shortchanged retirement annuities for years,” said Brown in a separate statement. “We can’t continue to sweep these problems under the rug and hope they will go away.”