Federal Managers Association

FMA Working for You

• FMA Successful In Efforts To Eliminate Drastic Federal Workforce Benefits Cuts - July 4, 2025

• Since the beginning of the 119th Congress in January 2025, cuts proposed to eliminate or disrupt federal employee benefits were included to pay for the One Big Beautiful Act. In a major development and good news for federal managers, the overwhelming bulk of these cuts were removed prior to the bill’s final passage.

  FMA worked for months in opposition to provisions that targeted retirement benefits and civil service protections, which were ultimately eliminated. FMA successfully advocated for the removal of provisions to increase pension contributions for all Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) employees, to change the annuity calculation change from the High-3 to the High-5, and to eliminate the FERS annuity supplement. Provisions requiring a filing fee to appeal cases to the Merit Systems Protection Board and to make feds at-will employees unless they contribute even more toward their pensions – additional provisions FMA opposed – were also eliminated.

  “These changes were critical, welcome improvements to the bill, as the proposed provisions were broken promises to workers who are currently vested, or at or near retirement age, and a tax on federal employees and annuitants,” FMA National President Craig Carter wrote. “They would have unfairly shifted the goalposts and eliminated earned benefits for employees who dedicated a career of service to the country. We are pleased these proposals have been removed.”
  

  President Trump signed the bill into law on the July 4th holiday.

  
  

  
  

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