IFPTE Urges Congress to Pass Omnibus Budget that Supports Working Families
This week, IFPTE reached out to members of the House of Representatives and the Senate to urge, in the strongest terms possible, to avoid a government shutdown and pass a fiscal year (FY) 2023 government funding budget that supports the priorities and needs of working Americans and retirees. The current federal government funding expires on Friday, December 16 and IFPTE supports a one-week extension of funding to allow more time for a proper “omnibus” funding bill for FY 2023.
IFPTE’s letter reminds Members of Congress that IFPTE members working for the federal government “have lived through several government shutdowns in the last 25 years as well as the annual threats of government funding lapses” and that, “This dysfunctional approach to the appropriations process has resulted in more than a decade of flat funding, costly interruptions of essential services and government operations, increased costs to taxpayers, reduced military readiness, delayed federal projects and research, and disrupted government contractors’ operations. It has also impacted the morale, financial security, and retention rates of the diverse population of federal workers who have chosen a career in the civil service.”
IFPTE’s priority list for end-of-the-year legislation and government funding includes:
Include a federal employee pay increase pursuant to the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 (FEPCA, P.L. 101–509) which for 2023 authorizes an average pay increase of 5.1% (4.1% plus 1% locality pay). At a minimum, Congress should provide the 4.6% average pay increase requested by the Biden Administration.
Support for good governance and anti-corruption language to curtail the ability of any presidential administration to harm the federal civil service by unilaterally moving large numbers of competitive service positions into the excepted service, a move that would eviscerate the federal government’s merit system principals, politicize the federal workforce, and deny federal workers their due process rights.
Provide at minimum of $368 million for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and include report language to support proper staffing at NRLB regional offices and implementation of electronic voting for union representation elections. Over the last nine years, NLRB funding has been frozen at $274 million, leaving the agency with a budget that is 25% smaller when adjusted for inflation than in 2010, and a staff that today sis 37% smaller than in 2015.
Enact the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) limitation on administrative expenses at $16.5 billion or at level no less than the requested $14.8 billion in the President’s FY2023 budget. From 2010 to 2021, SSA’s operating budget declined by about 13% after inflation, while the number of beneficiaries rose by 21%. Years of underfunding has led to staffing shortages which in turn are resulting in a growing backlog of disability claims and putting pressure on SSA to provide necessary services and benefits that retired Americans, disabled workers, and families depend on.
Provide at minimum $31.76 million for the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) as included in the House-passed Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill, which is part of the minibus H.R. 8294. The 2022 FLRA enacted budget was lower than it was its 2002 budget in absolute terms and is a 41% decrease when adjusted for inflation.
Support $1.78 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, as provided in the House-passed Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill, H.R. 8294, to fund R&D activities for advanced reactor projects and domestic fuel sources, help maintain current carbon-free nuclear energy generation, and support waste storage solutions.
Reauthorization of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a worker retraining program for those harmed by our trade policies and unfair trade competition. Since the program’s expiration in June 2022, over 30,000 eligible workers have lost access to two years of retraining and income support.
Enact the Tax Fairness for Workers Act (S. 1157/H.R. 2549), which restores and improves the tax deduction for union dues that was eliminated in the 2017 tax law.
Enact the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (H.R. 1065/S. 4431), which was passed by the House with overwhelming bipartisan support. This bill prohibits employers from discriminating against workers affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
Reinstate the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which would make enormous strides toward supporting job creation, offsetting inflation, ending child hunger and food insecurity, and lifting the working poor out of poverty.
Enact the VA Employee Fairness Act (H.R. 1948/S. 771) and the Rights for the TSA Workforce Act (H.R. 903/S. 1856), bipartisan bills that provide, respectively, collective bargaining rights to health care professionals at the VA and TSA employees.