FMA National President Craig Carter was in Washington, D.C., during the week of October 16 and we filled his schedule with a lot of FMA business. I wanted to briefly share a little about who we saw and what we talked about on behalf of FMA.

Craig attended the annual Samuel J. Heyman Award Ceremony (Sammies), representing FMA at the gala to recognize significant achievements by feds. He also attended a meeting of the Employee Thrift Advisory Council, which advises the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to improve your Thrift Savings Plan.

The centerpiece of the visit was a full day of meetings on Capitol Hill, advocating for managers with Senators, Representatives, and their staff. Craig takes pride in “walking the halls of Congress” and we sure did – I personally logged more than 25,000 steps that day. In keeping with FMA’s non-partisan approach, we naturally visited Republicans and Democrats and had productive meetings all day.

We met with Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA); majority staff for the full Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee; the Office of Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA); the Office of Rep. David Valadao (R-CA); the Office of Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT); majority staff from the House Oversight and Accountability Committee; the Office of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Chair of the Senate Government Operations Subcommittee; and, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA).

Topics of meetings included Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations (and the continuing resolution set to expire on November 17), the reintroduction of the Federal Retirement Fairness Act (H.R. 5995), telework policy, supervisor training, honoring feds killed in the line of duty, and many other issues.

President Carter is an outstanding advocate for federal managers, and we could not be prouder to represent your interests before Congress and the administration.