Potential Benefit Cuts Outlined

Good Evening All:

The Congressional Budget Office has once again released a
series of budget-cutting options that in the federal
employment realm mainly focus on the Federal Employees
Health Benefits and retirement programs, which account
for the lion?s share of spending on federal employees
outside of salaries. The options include: setting the
government share of FEHB premiums according to a flat
dollar amount that would be increased by general
inflation, not by the usually higher increases in
medical costs; cut the government contribution toward
retiree premiums by 2 percentage points for each year
of service under 30; base annuities for new retirees
on their highest five salary years rather than the
current high-three; hold annuity cost-of-living
adjustments below the rate of inflation; increase
employee contributions to retirement by a half-percent
of salary; reduce matching government contributions to
the Thrift Savings Plan for investors under FERS; and
switch Federal Employees Compensation Act benefits for
beneficiaries to an annuity at age 55.

Barb;)