Postal Reform Bill Shows Impact of NARFE’s Advocacy Efforts on Behalf of Feds
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The prompt for this round of the FEDforum is federal workforce goals in 2022. This week, hear from the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE).
Every day, half a million postal workers deliver mail to every address in America, providing crucial services and keeping us physically connected in an increasingly virtual world. Yet the Postal Service has struggled to maintain fiscal stability, putting the quality and reliability of those services at risk. In response, Congress has been debating significant postal reform legislation for the past decade, and finally passed a reform bill tonight, March 8.
While most feds may think these postal reform discussions would not concern them, the crux of leading postal bills in Congress have continually implicated the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program.
Recently, leading bills threatened to increase health benefit premiums for nonpostal federal employees and retirees. But thanks to NARFE’s unflagging advocacy efforts at both the grasstops and grassroots levels, bill sponsors amended the bill prior to House passage to protect FEHB.
As result, feds will not see decreased benefits. The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 creates a new Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) program for all USPS employees and retirees; benefits will mirror those offered through the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program. Costs for coverage for postal employees and retirees are expected to stay the same or even drop because of savings from integration with Medicare. With a different, generally younger, cohort remaining in FEHB, average costs of coverage for federal employees and retirees are also expected to decrease, all else being equal.
Prior to this Congress, NARFE had been ever cognizant of the need to protect the benefits promised to postal retirees, and put the brakes on policies that would set a dangerous precedent for the entire federal workforce. Too many times, reform proposals were advanced that would have required postal retirees to pay additional premiums for mostly duplicative health insurance coverage through Medicare or risk their earned health benefits, setting a dangerous precedent. Bills that would have altered the bargain regarding health benefits for postal retirees after they retired, adding costs for those on a fixed income, were a nonstarter.
This legislation is different. It upholds promises to retirees. While postal employees will need to enroll in Medicare Part B after retirement, current retirees will not be required to do so. But they will have a new opportunity to enroll without any late penalty, should they choose to do so. This also protects a precedent against changing health benefits in retirement for all feds.
Even as NARFE advocated for changes to leading bills, we lent support for other provisions to provide substantial relief to USPS. In addition to addressing NARFE’s concerns, the bill repeals the burdensome mandate to prefund future USPS retiree health benefits, and codifies six-day delivery standards—two reforms NARFE has long supported.
At the end of the day, on February 8, the House passed the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, providing financial relief to USPS without undermining federal and postal employee and retiree health benefits. Tonight, March 8, the Senate passed the bill as well, by a vote of 79-19, and it’s expected to be signed into law by the president. You can help NARFE continue protecting, as it has done here, the earned pay, retirement, and health care benefits of federal employees, retirees, and their spouses and survivors—join NARFE today and add your voice to every message we send to Congress and the administration.
This column from the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association is a part of the FEDforum, an initiative to unite voices across the federal community. The FEDforum is a space for federal employee groups to share their organizations’ initiatives and activities with the FEDmanager audience.
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