This report provides an update on issues affecting federal managers. As always, I encourage you to visit www.fedmanagers.org on a regular basis for more information on these and other matters.

Also, be sure to look for the monthly FMA Grassroots Update, where we offer links to action letters and FMA-PAC matters we do not address in the Washington Report. The grassroots newsletter is sent exclusively to non-governmental email addresses to avoid any Hatch Act violations. If you are not receiving it, contact the national office to provide your non-governmental email address.

Please feel free to provide feedback any time by emailing Greg Stanford at gstanford@fedmanagers.org or by calling the National Office at (703) 683-8700. Thank you for your membership in FMA. It’s an honor to represent your interests before Congress and the administration.

Donald J. Trump has been elected to serve as the 47th President of the United States. Trump, the 45th President, will return to the White House for a second term, and will be sworn in on January 20, 2025.

“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate. We have taken back control of the Senate,” President-Elect Trump said at an election night watch-party. Republicans will assume majority control of the United States Senate for the 119th Congress, while control of the House of Representatives remains unknown at this time.

FMA National President Craig Carter congratulated Trump on his re-election, pledging to work with him and his administration.

The open season for 2025 Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program health benefits, dental and vision insurance, and flexible spending accounts will be November 11 through December 9, 2024.

The average enrollee share increase for 2025 will be 13.5 percent. The last time the increase in the enrollee share was over 10 percent was in 2003 (11.6 percent). The overall average FEHB premium increase will be 11.2 percent. The new health premiums go into effect in January 2025.

As you may know, FEHB premiums are shared by you and your agency. You generally pay approximately 30 percent of the total cost, and your agency pays the remaining 70 percent. The full set of rate charts for 2025 is available here.

The average premium increase for dental plans for 2025 is 2.97 percent, and the average premium increase for vision plans is less than 1 percent.

OPM officials said the primary drivers for the 2025 premium increases are price increases from providers and suppliers, as well as the costs of prescription drugs and an increase in outpatient services.

On October 10, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for monthly Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security Income payments, and Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) retirees will be 2.5 percent for 2025. This is down from 3.2 percent in 2024, and the COLA will take effect in January. It also means Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) annuitants will therefore receive a 2.0 percent COLA.

SSA says Social Security retirement benefits, on average, will increase by approximately $50 per month beginning in January.

The process for calculating the annual COLA is provided in the Social Security Act. The Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In late October we learned of a “DHS Bureaucrat Watchlist” produced by a non-profit that lists its “Top 10 Targets” of individual civil servants, including large pictures and detailed biographical profiles, based on their perceived political or ideological leanings. Similarly, we have learned of an uptick of doxxing and threatening federal employees at the Justice Department.

FMA is deeply concerned by the outrageous and dangerous publication of these lists labeling federal employees performing their civil service jobs as “targets.” We are in communication with our colleagues at the Senior Executives Association, and others within the Federal-Postal Coalition, to express our concerns with the administration and Congress.

The country is currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR) through December 20, 2024. Federal Managers Association (FMA) National President Craig Carter, who urged all members of Congress earlier in the month to craft a solution, expressed relief and frustration that Congress once again relied on a continuing resolution to punt the debate on providing full year appropriations for federal agencies.

“The Federal Managers Association is relieved Congress approved this continuing resolution to prevent a harmful government shutdown,” Carter wrote. “It will keep America’s hard working federal employees on the job, ensuring Americans will continue to receive the vital services they provide into December. While we supported this short-term Band-Aid, CRs hinder the ability of the government and military to plan for the fiscal year ahead. They reduce government’s buying power and increase costs to taxpayers. The result of a CR is the loss of billions of dollars. We are disappointed Congress has once again relied on a CR to keep the government running.”

The effort to repeal the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision (GPO/WEP) – a long-time FMA issue brief and 2nd most cosponsored bill in the 118th Congress – suffered a major setback due to a procedural maneuver on November 5. FMA is still working with Representatives Garret Graves (R-LA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), the lead sponsors of the bill, and who filed the successful discharge petition in the effort to bring the bill up for an actual vote on the House floor.

The next step in the discharge process was for Graves and Spanberger to trigger a two-day clock for a vote to be scheduled on the House floor on the repeal bill. However, on November 5, members of the House Freedom Caucus used an unattended 7-minute pro-forma session of the House to recognize a unanimous consent (UC) request to lay the GPO/WEP repeal bill on the table, effectively tabling consideration – for now.

With his typical wit, Graves downplayed the Tuesday night action as an inconsequential caper. “Now that this new precedent has been created,” Graves said, “I plan to seek UC to send every American a pony.”

On October 18, Rep. Dan Newhouse introduced the Federal Employee Return to Work Act (H.R. 10014) which would prohibit any fed who teleworks at least one day per week (or 20 percent of work hours) from receiving locality pay from their official work station. All feds covered by this legislation would instead be considered in the “Rest of U.S.” locality pay area. The legislation is a House companion bill to legislation (S. 4834) introduced by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) in late July.

“The federal government pays for massive offices for agency employees in Washington, D.C., and we now know that 17 of the 24 federal agencies are using less than a quarter of their space because of work from home employees,” Newhouse said in a statement. “If agencies wish to allow their employees to work from home, that is their right to do so. But if they do, then the government should not be paying locality bonuses to those employees and they should be treated like any other work from home federal employee that doesn’t receive such a bonus. Taxpayers pay for federal buildings and salaries; it is time to stop wasting their money on empty buildings and unneeded work from home bonuses.”

On August 30 President Biden formalized his planned 2 percent pay raise, as previously announced in his Fiscal Year 2025 budget request. The 2 percent raise – comprised of a 1.7 percent across-the-board raise and an average 0.3 percent boost to locality pay – was included in a letter to Congress. This disappointment comes after two years of reasonable pay raises – 5.2 percent in 2024 and 4.6 percent in 2023.

Both the House and Senate versions of the Fiscal Year 2025 spending bill for Financial Services and General Government stay silent on the issue of a pay raise, in effect endorsing President Biden’s alternative pay plan. The uniformed military is slated to receive a 4.5 percent raise for 2025. FMA supports the 4.5 percent raise for active military and has advocated for pay parity for feds. Federal employees work side-by-side with their uniformed military colleagues and there is no excuse for failing to reward them evenly.

On October 17, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released the 2024 OPM Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) results. The annual survey takes a snapshot of federal workforce opinions and is often noted in how policies affecting feds are received. The 2024 results show “steady improvement in nearly all areas and the highest-ever Employee Engagement Index (EEI) Score since OPM began tracking the metric in 2010,” according to OPM. The EEI tracks perception of leadership, supervisors, and intrinsic work experience, and was 74 out of 100 for 2024, a full percentage point higher than 2023.

The response rate to this year’s FEVS survey grew to 41 percent, up from a 39 percent response in 2023.

For the full collection of data, see the OPM FEVS dashboard. This tool offers a clear way to view governmentwide data collected and trends over the past five years. You can also view information on the OPM FEVS methods, including data weighting and analysis in the OPM FEVS Technical Report.

On November 7, the Office of Management and Budget shared the final quarterly updates on the Biden-Harris President’s Management Agenda, which can be found at Performance.gov.

OMB touted several highlights from the past quarter:

• OPM and OMB released a memorandum to guide federal agencies in improving the hiring experience for applicants, managers, and human capital specialists—all to recruit the workforce needed for today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.

• Implementation of Online Passport Renewal and Direct File at the IRS.

Are you approaching retirement? The Office of Personnel Management website offers a Retirement Quick Guide that shares what feds can expect as they navigate the retirement application process, how benefits are determined, and guidelines related to their interim and annuity payments. You can also view a three-page printable PDF version of the quick guide here.