July 21, 2023 APWU members are continuing to advocate for the passage of the Social Security Fairness Act, H.R. 82 and S. 597. These bills were introduced by Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA-06) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), with a number of bi-partisan original co-sponsors in both chambers. The Act would repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision…
March 9, 2023 Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Susan Collins (R-ME) reintroduced the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act (S. 597) in the Senate on March 1. The bill, which is identical to legislation introduced in the House (H.R. 82) in January by Reps. Garret Graves (R-LA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), would repeal the Government Pension…
FERS COLA After the second quarter of 2021, the third quarter for the 2022 COLA adjustment period, the quarterly average has increased by 4.1%. The 2022 FERS retiree COLA is based on the third quarter (July, August, September) average CPI-W index (1982-84=100) in 2021 over the 2020 third quarter average. However, if the CPI-W quarterly…
Do you know about survivor benefits and how they work? You can make one of the following survivor benefit elections to occur in the event of your death: No survivor benefits Full or partial annuity for spouse Full or partial annuity for former spouse Combination of full or partial annuity for a spouse and former…
Objective The Postal Service participates in three retirement plans: the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits (RHB). The first two are pension plans and the third is set up to fund the Postal Service’s share of RHB premiums. The U.S. Office of Personnel…
Objective The Postal Service participates in three retirement plans: The Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits (RHB). The first two are pension plans, and the third is set up to fund RHB premiums. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) administers these programs, including…
By Andy Medici – April 6, 2015 If federal employees were a foreign country they would rank only behind China and Japan as holders of U.S. Treasury securities, according to federal data. The Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employee Retirement System hold a combined 837 billion in Treasury securities, and the Thrift Savings…
By Peter Urban – March 5, 2015 WASHINGTON — As a freshman member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman has gone largely unnoticed by the unions that represent federal employees, but that is about to change. Westerman, R-Hot Springs, is introducing legislation that would cut back on pension benefits for retirees starting in 2017. A…
