Plans to stabilize the money-losing U.S. Postal Service have been bouncing around Capitol Hill for a long time, long enough to make you wonder if Congress will ever do anything about it. The proposals are designed to help the Postal Service deal with a changing business climate that left it with a net loss of $5 billion in fiscal year 2013. Yet the Washington Post reports that if the legislation in the Senate becomes law, its reach will extend well beyond the postal facilities and those who work there. The measure could have a significant impact on many federal employees, particularly those who are injured. That worries feds across the government.
The legislation would cut some payments provided through the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), better known as workers’ comp, for staffers injured on the job. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has approved the legislation, sponsored by its chairman, Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.).
Is comes as no surprise that Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said she “strongly opposes . . . unwarranted cuts in FECA benefits for injured federal workers who are either older or have family obligations. Under this bill, injured workers would have their FECA benefits reduced by one-third to one-quarter when they reach the retirement age for Social Security.”
A committee aide said that benefits would not change for workers who are permanently and totally disabled, or age 65 or older. The aide added that the bill includes programs to help injured workers get back to work.
So far, opposition by NTEU and other labor organizations has not been strong enough to prevent the workers’ comp provision from advancing along with the rest of the legislation. The overall bill won bipartisan approval in the committee with a 9-1 vote in February and the full Senate voted 62-37 on the same measure two years ago. The one “no” vote in February was cast by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). He complained that the legislation “includes sweeping changes to the federal workers compensation program, even though the committee has yet to hold a single hearing on the issue. It certainly seems there was time to hold a hearing, given how long the provision has been around. And the Senate seems in no rush to move the legislation now.”
Asked for an update on the legislation, the committee aide said Carper “remains hopeful that the full Senate can consider the bill later this year.”