U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and a group of 25 Senators wrote a letter to Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Jeff Pon, urging the Trump Administration not to cut retirement benefits for the nation’s federal workforce. This letter comes after OPM Director Pon outlined an Administration plan to freeze federal employee pay and cut retirement benefits for 2.6 million federal retirees and survivors over the next ten years.
“Together, the proposals you have made would cut $143 billion over ten years from federal employee retirement programs, while offering nothing to employees in their place. We fear that these cuts are motivated by an ongoing effort to balance the budget on the backs of federal workers rather than an effort to provide a comprehensive approach to modernizing federal employee compensation,” the Senators wrote in the letter.
“As you continue to develop legislative proposals related to the compensation of federal employees, we urge you to move past draconian cuts that harm the financial security of federal employees in every state across the country, and instead commit to comprehensive reforms that modernize our government’s compensation system in a way that encourages the best and brightest talent to join the ranks of our dedicated civil servants,” the Senators concluded.
Joining Sen. Warner on the letter are Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Tom Carper (D-DE), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Chris Coons (D-CT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tom Udall (D-NM), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).
The text of the letter can be found here.
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Chris Graham
