LIUNA Federal Employee Lobby Week Training March 19 2013 Lobbying on Sequestration Introduction What is sequestration How does sequestration affect federal workers How to lobby on sequestration ID: 541713
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By: Danielle LeClairLIUNA Federal Employee Lobby Week TrainingMarch 19, 2013
Lobbying on SequestrationSlide2
Introduction
What is sequestration?
How does sequestration affect federal workers?
How to lobby on sequestrationSlide3
1. What is sequestration?
History - Summer 2011 – Congress was about to hit the debt ceiling
Came to a deal
GOP would allow increase on debt ceiling in exchange for steep budget cuts next 10 years
Budget Control Act of 2011 passedSlide4
What is the Budget Control Act (BCA)?
Compromise – Budget Control Act (BCA) was passed
Extended debt limit to
2013 (
til
May 19)
Nearly $1 trillion in
immediate deficit
reduction
Process for long-term balanced deficit reduction of $1.5 trillion in tax and entitlement reform
Enforcement mechanism that would compel painful spending cuts
Super Committee
SequesterSlide5
Super Committee
Official Name: Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
Members – 12 total
6 House – 3 GOP, 3 Dem
6 Senate – 3 GOP, 3 Dem
Purpose – to develop a deficit reduction plan of $1.5 trillion over 10 years (beyond the $900+ billion in cuts in the BCA)
Threat of DOD and non-DOD cuts was supposed to compel Super Committee to get a deal by December 23, 2011.
Sword of Damocles – was supposed to prevent sequestration
Defense – 50% - GOP priority (but not Tea Party)
Non-Defense – 50% - Dem priority
What Happened: November 21, Super Committee ended its work stating it could not reach a deal.Slide6
Sequestration
Under the BCA, since the Super Committee did not reach a budget deal, sequestration would automatically kick in January 2013.
What is sequestration?
$1.2 trillion in budget cuts would happen automatically (known as sequestration).
Congress voted earlier this year to postpone sequestration until March 1, 2013, when it went into effect. Slide7
Sequestration exemptions
Social Security
Medicaid
Veterans Benefits and pensions – and all VA employees
Payments to Federal retirement funds – FERS, CSRS, SAE
Civilian and military pay
Does not mean there can’t be an extended pay freeze
Does not mean feds can’t be furloughed (cut in pay)
Child nutrition
SSI
WICSlide8
2. Sequestration – how does it affect federal workers?
Agencies have to find cost savings – between 5-10% of the Agency budget
Agencies can consider taking the following actions affecting workers to find cost savings:
Furloughs – agencies can choose to furlough workers up to 22 days for the rest of FY 13
Eliminate bonuses
Travel
Conference spending
Hiring freezesSlide9
Sequestration - furloughs
To meet the required cuts to their budgets, some Agencies have announced they will furlough federal workers
Maximum – 22 days (otherwise, RIFs are triggered)Slide10
How are agencies handling furloughs?
Agencies furloughing include:
DOD – 22
days
USDA
– 2 weeks
EPA – 13 days
DOL – 6 days
Agencies who have not announced whether they will furlough include:
HHS
.
Agencies not furloughing include:
VA – exempt by law
State, SBA, Smithsonian, NRCSlide11
How do agencies decide whether to furlough?
Budgets – 22 day furloughs will only result in 10% of the savings that DOD needs to come up with
Are there other cost savings such as hiring freezes, scaling back contracts,
etc
?
Politics (White House Tours, Congressional door closures)
Exemptions (job classifications) – unclear – most Agencies don’t have this info yetSlide12
Furloughs - bargainingUnions have limited ability to bargain over furloughs
Impact and Implementation
How furloughs occur, not whether
i.e. can they be taken all at once to help employees vs. one day per pay period
Day care
Military trainingSlide13
Bills relating to furloughsH.R. 900 – Rep. Conyers (MI) – repeal sequestration
H.R. 950 – Rep.
Farenthold
(TX) -
require
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to send a report to Congress indicating how amounts could be transferred within agencies and departments for fiscal year 2013 to avoid all furloughs or reductions in
force
Keeps sequestration in place
H.R. 1014 – Rep. Palazzo (MS) – exempt National Guard technicians from furloughsSlide14
Other Attacks on Federal Workers
112
th
Congress (2011-2012)
2 year pay freeze
Requires new hires to pay more for their pensions, creating a new category of pension - SAEs
2013 - Continuing Resolution
House and Senate bills both extend the pay freeze through the end of FY 13
Both continue sequestration
2013 - Congressional Budget Resolution – House
Will require feds to pay “more” for their retirement plans to better align with the private sector (does not say how much more, but assumption is 2-5% more)
10% workforce cut through attrition
$132 billion more in savings over 10 years
2013 - Congressional Budget Resolution – Senate
Ends sequestration
Does not include House bad provisions for Federal workersSlide15
Key upcoming datesMarch 27 – CR expires
April 8 – President unveils his budget
May 18 – Debt ceiling reached (again)Slide16
3. Sequestration– What to Say to your Member of Congress
If you are being furloughed – how does this affect:
You – pay cut, morale
Your
family – less money for the family – groceries, mortgage,
etc
Your
community – hurts small businesses when feds can’t pay for things like meals out, school clothes,
etc
Even if you are not being furloughed, how are you affected by sequestration?
Morale/fear
No bonuses
Harder to do your job with less resources
Already living under a pay freeze for more than 2 years – extended under recent House
and Senate
CR
Feds make 22% less on average than private sector counterpartsSlide17
Meeting Review
Thank them for the meeting
Introduce LIUNA
Half a million members in the U.S. and Canada, including over 25,000 federal employees in 35 states
Introduce yourself and your group
My name is ___ and I work at ___ (agency) and I am a (nurse, mechanic, groundskeeper, etc).
Tell them how many Federal employees live in their state/Congressional district
Introduce and explain how sequestration affects you, your family, and
your
community
Ask for them to oppose
furloughs