On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor the Federal Employee Disclosure (FED) Transparency Act, H.R. 2612. Introduced by Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), the FED Transparency Act would require the disclosure of federal pension records under the Freedom of Information Act and a report from agency heads on performance bonuses given to employees.
FreedomWorks is proud to announce that our bill of the month for March 2019 is the End Pensions in Congress (EPIC) Act, H.R. 191 and S. 438, sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.). The EPIC Act would terminate pensions for members of Congress, and force them to save for retirement in the same way that most private Americans do, by responsibly contributing to 401(k)-type plans.
It’s clear that the economy is going to be one of the driving issues in the 2016 presidential campaign, but with the entire country riveted to national politics, it’s easy to forget that state issues are at least as important as what the federal government is doing.
Unions are supposed to protect and look out for the best interests of workers. Some believe that without unions, employers would continually take advantage of employees. Why then is one of the largest private-sector unions in the country going forward with plans to cut the pensions of its members?
On Thursday evening, the New Jersey assembly passed a landmark bi-partisan overhaul of the public employee benefit and pension system. The bill passed the assembly by a 46-32 vote with 14 Democrats voted with Republicans for the bill. Now all that is needed is a signature from Governor Christie who has already touted the success of the bill’s passage.
Public employee pensions are a ticking fiscal time bomb. Nearly every state in the nation is struggling to reform their broken pension plans. For many years, public sector unions have over promised government workers lucrative pensions that they cannot afford to pay. This has created a looming crisis for state budgets and taxpayers. It could be even worse than officials are predicting.