{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&Type=Press Release&ContentRecord_id=4e296bf4-bc9a-1cf1-ffa2-8d090ee7dd4e", "Senators Burr, Coburn, Chambliss Reintroduce Public-Private Employee Retirement Parity Act", "2013-11-12", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "NC", "Richard Burr", "B001135", "www.burr.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "11.12.13\n\t\t\t Senators Burr, Coburn, Chambliss Reintroduce Public-Private Employee Retirement Parity Act \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t \r\nToday, U.S. Senators Richard Burr\r\n(R-NC), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) reintroduced the\r\nPublic-Private Employee Retirement Parity Act to address long-term liabilities\r\nfacing the federal government. The legislation would end the defined benefit\r\npension portion of the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) for new\r\nfederal government hires starting six months after enactment, leaving fully in\r\nplace the Thrift Savings Plan with the current match (up to 5%) for both\r\ncurrent and future federal workers. The bill would also apply to Members\r\nof Congress.\r\n\r\n\r\n\"Right now, federal government\r\nworkers receive far more generous retirement benefits than private sector\r\nemployees. The cost to taxpayers of these benefits is unsustainable and\r\nwe simply cannot afford it,\" said Sen. Burr. \"We cannot ask\r\ntaxpayers to continue to foot the bill for public employee benefits that are\r\nfar more generous than their own.\"\r\n\r\n\r\n\"Generous pension plans for\r\nmembers of Congress have helped turn congressional service into a career rather\r\nthan a calling,\" said Dr. Coburn. \"At the same time, federal\r\nworkers enjoy a better benefits package and higher overall pay than most\r\ntaxpayers - even at a time when many Americans are still simply looking for a\r\njob. This status quo is unsustainable and needs to be reformed.\"\r\n\r\n\r\n\"With America now $17 trillion in\r\ndebt, we simply cannot continue to commit to future government spending,\" said\r\nSen. Chambliss. \"Americans have demanded their leaders make the\r\nnecessary changes to our fiscal policies to put our nation on a track to\r\nsustain economic growth and real job creation. The Public-Private\r\nEmployee Retirement Parity Act is a small change that will have a big impact on\r\nour debt and deficit.\"\r\n\r\n\r\nCurrently, federal workers enjoy\r\nboth a defined benefit pension and a Thrift Savings Plan (equivalent to a\r\n401(k)) with up to a 5% match, paid for by the taxpayers. The average\r\nprivate sector employee gets a 401(k) with a 3% employer match and no pension.\r\nFederal workers also continue to enjoy federal health care benefits\r\n(FEHBP) after they retire, a benefit that is becoming increasingly rare in the\r\nprivate sector.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe legislation will require the\r\nAdministration to make the annual report on the actuarial status of the\r\nfederal retirement system publically available online by January 31st each\r\nyear. According to the most recent Office of Personnel Management's Civil\r\nService Retirement and Disability Fund annual report, the FERS system is\r\ncurrently underfunded by $20.1 billion for fiscal year 2012. In the\r\ncoming years, as more of the retirement burden falls on the FERS system, the\r\nrequired federal government contributions to FERS will skyrocket, especially in\r\ncomparison to what federal workers will put into the system. In 2012, the\r\nFederal government contributed about $22.2 billion to FERS. By 2065, those\r\nrequired contributions will rise to $239.5 billion, with the government paying\r\nout $415.3 billion in benefits.\r\n\r\n\r\nCurrent federal government\r\nemployees and retirees would not be impacted by the changes in the\r\nBurr-Coburn-Chambliss bill.\r\n\r\n\r\nClick here to\r\nlearn more.\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article\n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tNext Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&Type=Press Release&ContentRecord_id=4e296bf4-bc9a-1cf1-ffa2-8d090ee7dd4e"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9667458944022655, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}