Anna Hartz
A Small Change in the Tax Bill Could Wreck the Civil Service
Summer often brings a lot of noise in politics. This year, some of it could reshape how government jobs work in the United States.
On Thursday, House Republicans passed a massive tax and spending bill called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
The vote was close—215 to 214, reports the Huff Post. Most people noticed the tax cuts and spending slashes.
But buried inside was something that could change the entire federal workforce.
The bill includes a rule that pushes new federal employees to give up job protections unless they pay more out of their own pockets.
If the measure becomes law, new hires would face two choices. Either they accept a 5% pay cut to keep their current job protections.
Or they become “at-will” employees who can be fired at any time, for nearly any reason.
Right now, federal workers chip in to a retirement system called FERS. The government matches those contributions.
Depending on when they were hired, workers pay between 0.8% and 4.4% of their salary.
Under the new bill, new employees would have to pay 9.4% unless they give up their protections.
Unions say it’s a quiet but serious attack on civil service. Daniel Horowitz from the American Federation of Government Employees says this would gut the system that’s been in place for more than a century.
The average new hire earns about $71,000 a year. Under the bill, they’d lose about $3,500 a year just to keep the right to appeal a firing.
Most people probably wouldn’t give up that much money. That’s what the authors of the bill are counting on.
Union leaders call the change a kind of legal bribe. Some even say it’s more like extortion.
Steve Lenkart, from the National Federation of Federal Employees, says this would make it easier to fire people without cause.
It would also make it harder for unions to keep members.
Now, all eyes are on the Senate. Some Republicans may object. Others may push it through.
Either way, the future of federal jobs just got a lot more uncertain.