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.

In November 2023, Congress passed, and President Biden signed, a laddered continuing resolution (CR), the Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024 (H.R. 6363) to avert a government shutdown and keep the federal government funded into 2024. It is a two-tiered CR that funds the departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture through January 19, 2024. All other federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, are funded through February 2, 2024.

The first deadline – January 19 – is swiftly approaching.

On January 9, Congressional leaders announced they had reached an agreement on a top-line funding level of $1.66 trillion for Fiscal Year 2024, which began on October 1, 2023. If adopted, defense spending would be $886 billion while non-defense spending would be approximately $773 billion. Questions remain on how to specifically divide appropriations, which are traditionally allocated amongst 12 separate appropriations bills each year. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would lose $20 billion from the funds included in the Inflation Reduction Act as part of this agreement.

On December 21, 2023, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay, which implements an average 5.2 percent pay raise for 2024. The raise is comprised of a 4.7 percent across-the-board boost to basic pay and an average 0.5 percent boost to locality pay.

The Office of Personnel Management subsequently issued the following Compensation Policy Memoranda (CPM) regarding January 2024 pay adjustments:

CPM 2023-20 January 2024 Pay Adjustments

In mid-December 2023, Congress approved the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Senate approved the final conference report on December 13, 2023, by a vote of 87-13, and the House passed it the following day by a vote of 310-118. FMA strongly supported the final version of the bill, and National President Craig Carter issued a statement after President Biden signed it into law.

“FMA is pleased Congress came together in a bipartisan manner to adopt the must-pass NDAA for the 63rd consecutive year,” Carter wrote. “Conflicts and instability around the world pose a grave threat to our national security, and it was imperative that Congress provide our uniformed military and Department of Defense civilian employees with the resources they desperately need.”

On January 9, 2024, FMA joined 25 colleagues of the Federal-Postal Coalition in a letter to Congress in support of the Federal Retirement Fairness Act (H.R. 5995). The Federal-Postal Coalition is comprised of national organizations that collectively represent five million federal and postal workers and retirees.

Introduced in late October 2023 by Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA), the Federal Retirement Fairness Act is FMA-endorsed legislation that would allow Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) employees who worked in temporary or intermittent positions to make catch-up contributions toward their retirements. This is an FMA issue brief and Rep. Kilmer has been a champion on this issue for many years.

Members of Congress and their staffs are continuing their efforts to build support for legislation to repeal both the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) in the new year. FMA is part of a Social Security Fairness Coalition, which met during the week of January 8 to discuss strategies to advance the Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82 / S. 597).

The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security held a field hearing on GPO/WEP repeal in November 2023, and FMA submitted testimony for the record. The House bill has more than 300 cosponsors, while the Senate version is up to 50 cosponsors.

On December 18, 2023, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA). O’Malley was confirmed by a vote of 50-11, with 39 senators not voting. He was sworn in on December 20 providing SSA its first permanent commissioner in more than two years. His term expires on January 19, 2025.

The SSA administers retirement, disability, survivor, and family benefits, and enrolls individuals in Medicare. Its programs pay more than 1.4 trillion dollars annually to more than 66 million beneficiaries. Established in 1925, SSA is headquartered in Woodlawn, Maryland, outside of Baltimore. The Commissioner oversees a staff of nearly 61,000 employees and 1,500 facilities.

On January 10, 2024, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins released her 2023 Annual Report to Congress. Created in 1996, the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), an independent arm of the IRS, is required to submit a report detailing the most significant problems taxpayers are experiencing with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and make recommendations on how to address and resolve them.

“Overall, the magnitude of successes exceeded the areas of weakness in 2023, and most metrics showed significant improvement from the depths of the [COVID-19] pandemic,” Collins wrote in the report’s preface. The report confirms the IRS’ progress to improve taxpayer services and plans to transform the taxpayer experience. It notes improvements on Form 1040 processing and telephone service, eliminating most of its processing backlog and paying refunds in a timely manner. “The good news is that, with limited exceptions, we are back to business as usual,” Collins wrote. Collins noted major strides the IRS has taken as a result of funding via the Inflation Reduction Act and the planning that went into the Strategic Operation Plan and expressed optimism overall.

In December, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) submitted its annual “Status of Telework in the Federal Government Report to Congress,” based on data covering Fiscal Year 2022. It is the tenth such report OPM has submitted since passage of the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010.

The key findings reflecting current trends detailed in the report include:

• Total telework participation has slightly decreased from FY 2021

• Telework eligibility among federal workers continues to grow; Participation among eligible employees fell significantly

• Total telework goal achievement remains high; New trends emerge in identification of telework outcome goals set by agencies

• Ability to assess cost-savings has changed as agencies meet emerging areas of cost savings

In March 2023, OPM launched a Retirement Quick Guide that shares what feds can expect through 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: https://www.opm.gov/retirement-center/retirement-quick-guide/opm-retirement-quick-guide.pdf.

Join us on Thursday, February 15, at 8:00 PM Eastern, for a Federal Managers Association Issue Briefs discussion. FMA’s Government and Public Affairs Director Greg Stanford will present on the current state of FMA Issue Briefs for the coming year, and highlight areas where we believe we can make progress in the second session of the 118th Congress. Attendees are encouraged to come prepared to ask questions and discuss these issues.

To review the draft 2024 FMA Issue Briefs Executive Summary, click here.

A link to join the zoom discussion will be sent to your email prior to the evening.