National President Dougan Issues Statement on House Federal Retirement Hearing
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Contact:
Cory Bythrow, Communications
Director
Phone: (202) 216-4458
Washington, D.C.
– In
response to a Wednesday hearing in the House
Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal
Service, and Labor Policy concerning federal
retirement security, National Federation of
Federal Employees National President William R.
Dougan issued the following
statement:
“The
CSRS and FERS pensions are the bedrock of the
retirement security for millions of current and
former federal employees. These modest
retirement benefits provide a small but
dependable income for retirees who dedicated
years – often decades – of their lives to
national service. Misleading statements
suggesting federal retirement benefits are
excessive are not just unfair, they are simply
untrue. The facts are that the average CSRS
pensioner relies on just $2,941 per month,
because they are ineligible to collect social
security. The average FERS pensioner, on the
other hand, can collect social security but
receives a mere $1,065 in annuity payments each
month. That’s a total of just $12,780 per year
– a modest sum by any measure.
The
bottom line is that unfair attacks on federal
retirement benefits are solutions in search of
a problem. These criticisms have little basis
in fact and are motivated more by ideological
politics than ideal policy. Underfunding issues
were dealt with nearly thirty years ago when
federal retirement reforms cut pensions in half
and mandated fully funded benefits. Today the
federal retirement system is a model of
efficiency, reliability, and stability for
taxpayers and the retirees who served them. If
we are to continue to deliver a high level of
service to the American people, we must have a
retirement system that rewards years of
dedicated service. We have that today, and will
do all we can to preserve it for
tomorrow.”