The recently proposed cuts to federal benefits that House lawmakers crafted as part of the GOP budget reconciliation bill has the attention of many employees, but that’s not the only legislation that will create changes for federal employees in the near future.
In the past few weeks, Democrats and Republicans alike have introduced other legislation attempting to make changes to the federal workforce and federal benefits. Listed below are a number of those additional bills federal employees can track over the coming months.
Greater death benefits for civil servants’ families
The Honoring Civil Servants Killed in the Line of Duty Act, reintroduced by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), and the late Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), would raise the death and funeral benefits that surviving family members receive when a civil servant is killed in the line of duty.
The current death benefit for families of civil servants is $10,000. The benefit would be raised to $100,000, bringing it to the standard of what families receive when employees in the Defense Department and the Foreign Service are killed in the line of duty.
Additionally, the legislation would add an automatic cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to ensure the benefit continues to rise on pace with inflation. While the bill has been reintroduced in Congress on multiple occasions, it has not seen substantial progress.
In a statement, Fitzpatrick said the bill “fixes outdated policy and ensures their families receive the benefits and recognition their sacrifice demands.”
Changes for physician assistants, nurse practitioners
Another bipartisan House bill aims to elevate physician assistants and nurse practitioners in their ability to deliver care to federal employees who have workers’ compensation claims.
When injured on the job, federal employees are currently prohibited by law from being treated by physician assistants or nurse practitioners. The legislation would revise the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) to allow the additional categories of health care professionals to treat feds specifically in workers’ compensation cases.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), one of the original cosponsors of the bill, said the changes would make FECA and the federal workforce more efficient by helping “federal employees get healthy and get back on the job sooner.”
A previous version of the legislation passed the House in 2022, but ultimately did not clear the Senate. The lawmakers of the bill said they are hopeful the legislation will be passed this Congress.
Expanding retirement benefits for federal officers
There is also bipartisan legislation in the House attempting to expand the retirement benefits that are typically reserved for federal law enforcement officers and make them available more broadly.
Retirement benefits specifically available to federal officers allow the employees to retire with 20 years of service at age 50, or at any age with 25 years of service. But those benefits don’t currently apply to all federal officers. Law enforcement officers working in the Defense Department, FBI and Department of Veterans Affairs — among several other agencies — are not eligible for the benefit.
If enacted, the Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act, would expand the definition of a federal officer to encompass groups of employees who are not currently able to access the retirement options.
Three Republicans and two Democrats have cosponsored the legislation, which has been reintroduced multiple times, but so far not seen much action. Lawmakers have estimated that 30,000 federal officers do not receive the 6(c) retirement benefit because of the way the statute is currently written.
Offering hiring preference to impacted federal employees
Another bill called the REHIRE Act similarly attempts to push back against the Trump administration’s recent overhauls of the federal workforce. If enacted, agencies would have to give hiring preference to federal employees who have been involuntarily removed from their jobs over the last several months.
Beyer, who introduced the bill, said the legislation “would pave the way to rehire many of the federal workers who devoted their careers to serving the American people, and bringing their essential expertise and experience back to public service.”
The bill so far has 10 cosponsors, all of whom are Democrats. Federal unions including the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees union have expressed support for the legislation.
The House bill was referred to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee but it has not been taken up. There is so far no companion bill in the Senate.
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