Article Title: Joint resolution passes California state Assembly, aims to increase Social Security benefits for public sector employees
Snippet of Article: "...The California State Assembly passed Assembly Joint Resolution No. 41, or AJR 41, on June 25, requesting that Congress and the president repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision from the Social Security Act..."
Article Title: Declaration of Independence
Article Title: Important changes to TSP withdrawal options
Snippet of Article: "...you’ll also have the option to take your withdrawal only from your Roth balance or only from your traditional balance. These options will be available for all types of withdrawals. Read the TSP Q&A relating to the changes at..."
Article Title: Federal employees sue over union restrictions
Snippet of Article: "...seems to think he is above the law, and we are not going to stand by while he tries to shred workers’ rights,” said the American Federation of Government Employees national president J. David Cox Sr., in a statement that announced the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District..."
Article Title: How many veterans work for the federal government?
Snippet of Article: "...how many military veterans does the federal goverment employ? Roughly one in four of 2.1 million federal employees is a veteran, according to statistics compiled by the Office of Personnel Management..."
Article Title: Trump’s orders show unwavering attack on federal unions, employees
Snippet of Article: "...The orders are in keeping with other actions to belittle federal unions and the pocketbooks of all federal employees. Trump wants to freeze federal pay next year and cut federal retirement benefits by $143.5 billion over 10 years. In March, his Education Department unilaterally imposed a contract on union members who had rejected it..."
Article Title: Supreme Court Decision Delivers Blow To Workers' Rights
Snippet of Article: "...The inevitable result, she warned, is that there will be huge underenforcement of federal and state statutes designed to advance the well-being of workers.
"[T]he edict that employees with wage and hours claims may seek relief only one-by-one does not come from Congress," Ginsburg writes. "It is the result of take-it-or-leave-it labor contracts harking back to the type called 'yellow dog,' and of the readiness of this Court to enforce those unbargained-for agreements. The FAA demands no such suppression of the right of workers to take concerted action for their 'mutual aid or protection.'"
She urged Congress to correct the court's elevation of the arbitration act over workers' rights..."
Article Title: House GOP Group Envisions Massive Changes to Civil Service in Budget Proposal
Snippet of Article: "...White House plans to reduce retirement benefits for feds, including increasing employee contributions to the Federal Employees Retirement System pension by 1 percentage point per year over five years, eliminating cost of living adjustments for FERS employees, and reducing COLAs for employees in the Civil Service Retirement System.
It also included plans to base pension benefits on the highest five years of an employee’s salary, instead of the current high three, and it would eliminate the FERS supplement for federal employees who retire before Social Security kicks in at age 62..."
Article Title: USPS offers digital Informed Delivery service
Snippet of Article: "...Subscribers receive daily email notifications informing them of the mail or packages expected throughout the day after opting in at USPS.com or at their local post office.
"I get my email around 7:30 a.m.," St John said.
Customers "love it," she said...Mailers are using this technology to be informed of when items have reached their customers," St. John said..."
Article Title: White House Issues Executive Order to Review Postal Finances, Pricing, Policies and Workforce Costs
Snippet of Article: "...the Task Force will be comprised of multiple agency heads including the: Secretary of the Treasury as Chair; Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Director of the Office of Personnel Management; and other agency heads. The Executive Order goes on to highlight consultation with the Postmaster General and the Chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Secretary of Labor.
Postal Unions were not named in the EO as task force participants..."
Article Title: Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Koch Brothers, Bezos: Corporate Elites Determined to Flood U.S. with Foreigners
Snippet of Article: "...Wealthy Americans, specifically corporates elites — like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, the GOP billionaire megadonors the Koch brothers, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — are determined to continue the wage-crushing mass..."
Article Title: What’s the Impact of the [PROPOSED] FERS Benefit Cuts?
Snippet of Article: "...FERS employees are feeling very uneasy with the proposed cuts to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Pay Freeze. High 3 To High 5 Average. Paying More For FERS Pension. Eliminating FERS COLA. Eliminating FERS Supplement (Impact on Retirement: Severe for employees who retire under age 62). Reducing the G Fund Interest Rate in TSP. Changes To Sick Leave/Annual Leave. What’s an employee to do?..."
Article Title: White House Proposals For Civil Service Reform: What They Missed
Snippet of Article: "...The White House proposal increases the employee contribution to the annuity portion of the retirement plan, shifts from a “High 3” to a “High 5” annuity calculation, and eliminates the FERS Special Retirement Supplement for employees who retire before becoming eligible for Social Security..."
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Article Title: Federal employees can't make political posts at work, per new social-media rules
Snippet of Article: "...The Office of Special Counsel detailed what is and isn't acceptable in a Hatch Act Social Media Quick Guide.
When off the clock and outside of their place of work, employees can share on social media that they are attending fundraising events, as well as post in support or opposition of a political party. When on the clock or in a government building, employees should not post or share messages directed at the success or failure of a political party, candidate in a partisan race or partisan political group..."
Article Title: Axios: Kelly, Secret Service agent scuffled with Chinese officials over nuclear 'football'
Snippet of Article: "...Kelly then came over and told the officials to continue walking in, after which a Chinese security official grabbed at Kelly, and the chief of staff pushed him off, according to Axios. A Secret Service agent then tackled the Chinese security official, the publication reported...."
Article Title: Flu vaccine just 36% effective this season, CDC reports
Snippet of Article: "...More than two-thirds of flu sickness this season -- 69% -- has been caused by the H3N2 strain, an influenza A virus.
H3N2 viruses "are often linked to more severe illness," acting CDC Director Dr. Anne Schuchat said Thursday..."
Article Title: Democrats lash out at consumer watchdog amid reports the agency is dropping Equifax investigation
Snippet of Article: "...lawmakers, who have feared that President Trump’s pick to temporarily lead the agency, Mick Mulvaney, is weakening the consumer watchdog. Failing to investigate the data breach would put “145 million Americans at risk [and] is malpractice,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), ranking Democrat of the Senate Banking Committee. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said, “The Trump administration has chosen to protect Equifax while denying Americans justice and accountability..."
Article Title: FBI ‘Failed To Preserve’ Five Months Of Text Messages Between Anti-Trump FBI Agents
Snippet of Article: "...Strzok was removed after the Justice Department’s inspector general discovered text messages he exchanged with Page, with whom he was having an affair, in which both expressed strong criticism of Trump.
In one text, Strzok called Trump and “idiot.” In another, he said “F Trump..."
Article Title: USPS Offering Round of Early Retirements
Snippet of Article: "...The Postal Service is offering a round of early retirements–although not accompanied by buyout offers–to some 26,000 employees, with those who accept having to leave by the end of either January, February or March..."
Article Title: EPA may offer more buyouts, early retirement, depending on funding from Congress
Snippet of Article: "...the EPA could offer buyouts to an additional 2,200 to 2,500 employees. The maximum buyout a civilian federal employee can receive under current law is $25,000.
“I think we will see another round of buyouts with that kind of money in play,” O’Grady said in an interview with Federal News Radio..."
Article Title: FBI chief calls unbreakable encryption 'urgent public safety issue'
Snippet of Article: "...U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in October chastised technology companies for building strongly encrypted products, suggesting Silicon Valley is more willing to comply with foreign government demands for data than those made by their home country..."
Article Title: Trump labor adviser’s plan for cutting federal compensation, potentially even paid holidays
Snippet of Article: "...leading Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, revealed an administration proposal to freeze federal salaries in fiscal 2019. That is the third piece in a pattern that includes Trump’s 2018 budget proposal to cut the employer contribution to retirement benefits and the House Republican plan to have retirees pay more out of pocket for their health insurance...."
Article Title: Sen. McCaskill: White House to freeze pay for civilian employees in 2019
Snippet of Article: "...according to the document given to minority committee members, OMB denied DHS’ request to provide additional pay and added that the administration planned to issue a governmentwide pay freeze for civilian employees in 2019..."
Article Title: Federal Officials Probe National Lab After Worker Incident
Snippet of Article: "...Federal officials are investigating the Los Alamos National Laboratory after an employee was involved in an incident described as a "near-miss to a fatality."
A worker entered a lab room that had..."
Article Title: Pay attention to changes to next year’s payroll calendars; they’re all different
Snippet of Article: "...A few federal shared services payroll centers are making some small but significant changes to their pay schedules in 2018.
Each payroll center has a slightly different calendar for the coming year, and changes from any of the four major federal processing centers can impact employees’ Thrift Savings Plan contributions, annual leave banks and other benefits..."
Article Title: Trump’s Budget Takes a Big Bite Out of Federal Retirement Benefits
Snippet of Article: "...As part of his austerity drive, President Trump is seeking to eliminate cost-of-living adjustments for retirees in the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS), the premier government retirement program. He would also cut the cost-of-living adjustment rate by 0.5 percent for those covered by the parallel Civil Service Retirement System..."
Article Title: The perks of being a member of Congress
Snippet of Article: "...Members of Congress are granted policies, benefits, and perks that grant them privileges denied in most other workplaces. In yesterday's lead item in Axios AM, Mike Allen touched on John Boehner's in-office smoking as an example — allowed, according to the N.Y. Times, thanks to Congress' supremacy over District of Columbia law..."
Article Title: Taking CSRS Benefits to the Limit
Snippet of Article: "...If you are one of those already at the 80 percent limit, retirement deductions are still being taken out of your salary. If you haven’t reached the limit, they will be when you do. Your excess contributions will be refunded to you when you retire. And you’ll be offered a ..."
Article Title: Bernie Sanders: We must end global oligarchy
Snippet of Article: "...Here in the United States, the top one-tenth of 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. Incredibly, according to a recent report from the Institute for Policy Studies, three of the richest people in America -- Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett -- now own more wealth than bottom 160 million people in our country..."
Article Title: What Does the Tax Bill Do for Low-Income Workers?
Snippet of Article: "... it’s not fair that so many Americans, especially richer Americans, will benefit from the huge tax cuts while so many low-wage workers will be left out in the cold—and receive nothing from this budget-busting cornucopia..."
