Joseph A. Beaudoin, NARFE President sends letter opposing Senate postal reform bill in advance of committee consideration.

January 28, 2014

U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
340 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee:

On behalf of the five million active and retired federal and postal employees represented by the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), I urge you to oppose the Carper-Coburn substitute to S. 1486, the Postal Reform Act of 2013, when it is considered by the Committee this week.

The bill severely diminishes or authorizes the elimination of long-standing employee benefits. Specifically, NARFE objects to the bill for the following reasons, each of which is sufficient to justify opposition to the substitute as a whole: (1) sections 502 and 503 would substantially reduce compensation for federal and postal employees disabled by a work-related injury; and (2) section 102 would eliminate the guarantee of the defined-benefit pensions for newly-hired postal employees. Additionally, NARFE has specific concerns as it relates to section 104 of the substitute, which is remarkably different from sections 104 and 105 of the original bill, and urges the Committee to examine this further before taking action.

Accordingly, I urge you to support amendments that would strike or seriously alter these sections, notably Tester amendment #2 to strike Title V.

Workers’ Compensation
NARFE opposes the unjustified and unfair proposals to reduce workers’ compensation benefits for postal and federal employees disabled by a job-related injury or illness included in Title V of the substitute, which is unchanged from these sections in S. 1486. Senators should reexamine their views regarding these provisions, which were included in last year’s postal bill (S. 1789), in light of the analysis released last November by the Government Accountability Office.1

Specifically, NARFE opposes the provisions of Title V that: (i) would reduce the basic federal workers’ compensation benefit by 25-33 percent for workers at or above retirement age (section 502); and (ii) would eliminate the supplemental benefit for injured workers with children or other dependents (section 503).

The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) provides basic compensation to federal and postal employees disabled by work-related injuries and illnesses. For example, FECA provides compensation to an FBI agent shot on the job. In exchange for their reasonable benefits, FECA recipients lose their right to sue the government. While compensation is modest, it will never be able to reverse the permanent damage from a debilitating injury or illness.

Under S. 1486, injured employees would not be afforded the level of income security they would have earned had they been able to continue working. According to GAO, if this provision becomes law, federal workers disabled as part of their service would receive up to 35 percent less in retirement income than if they were not injured and retired after 30 years under FERS. Under current law, median FECA benefits for totally disabled workers are “on par with or less than” what they would have received after a full 30-year career. Additionally, the bill would eliminate the 8.33 percent supplemental benefit for injured workers with dependents, even as the GAO report shows that the median after-tax replacement rate of income is only 81.6 percent under current law. Finally, GAO found that these policy changes would have a disproportionate impact on the lowest-wage employees and those who are injured early in their careers.

Considering all of the above, I urge you to vote for Senator Tester’s amendment to strike these provisions from the bill. Changing the workers’ compensation structure for the entire federal workforce has no place in a controversial postal reform bill. Many of the Committee members supported a similar amendment from Senator Akaka last Congress, both in Committee and on the Senate floor. Should this amendment fail, I urge you to support Tester amendment #3 which would apply the workers’ compensation reductions prospectively only. The amendment would mitigate the severe financial harm imposed on federal workers disabled in service to their country. However, this amendment only puts a Band-Aid on a wound requiring surgery – the bill should be opposed even if the amendment is accepted.

 

http://www.narfe.org/pdf/NARFE_HSGAC_S1486_opposition.pdf