Get Involved!

Get Involved!
By Jimmy Warden
NAPS Secretary/Treasurer

In my June column, I spoke of the importance of getting involved. I stressed that what was happening on Capitol Hill needed to be taken personally by everyone. Business may be business, but this was personal for all.

As I am writing this column, great news was achieved as the result of the tireless efforts of our legislative team of Executive Vice President Chuck Mulidore, Director of Legislative & Political Affairs Bob Levi and all of you. It was through your combined efforts that provisions of H.R. 1, the Reconciliation Bill, that had a direct effect on postal employees and retirees had been eliminated from the bill in the Senate.

A key provision was the “at-will” employee status that would have affected any future individual becoming an EAS employee or anyone already an EAS employee who was granted a promotion.

The FERS Annuity Supplement will remain and the retirement formula going from the high three to the high five has been eliminated. In the House, the health benefit voucher system was eliminated, which would have affected all retirees and those working.

All this was a major accomplishment achieved through your advocacy efforts by sending emails and contacting your representative and senators. Our message was heard and responded to favorably.

Thanks to Chuck and Bob for, once again, putting our SPAC dollars to good use as we see the results of grassroots advocacy. We now must stay active and ensure these issues are not brought up again in the future.

On the eve of June 24, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) en-tered two provisions back into H.R. 1 that would have affected future postal employees, as well as current employees. The revised text would have increased FERS contributions by 5% for federal and postal employees who are hired on or after Jan. 1, 2026.

In addition, the revised text would have imposed a $350 user fee on employees who seek due process relief through the Merit Systems Protection Board. We cannot sit on the sidelines and not stay focused going forward. As we were informed on Sunday, June 29, those two provisions submitted by Paul were removed from the bill.

The bill now has been passed and will be signed by the president, fortunately, without the provisions previously referenced. Our advocacy efforts need to continue to ensure these provisions—as well as others that can be detrimental to postal employees—never are brought again.

We also need to continue supporting legislation such as H.R. 491/S. 624, the Equal COLA Act, that would allow all FERS retirees a full COLA raise into their pension. We also need to support H.R. 1559, the Postal Employees Appeal Rights Amendment Act, and H.R. 1560, the Postal Supervisors and Managers Fairness Act. You can read more about our legislative agenda on the NAPS website at www.naps.org.

SPAC is an important part of supporting our legislative agenda. At the recent Northeast Region Training Seminar hosted by Northeast Region Vice President Dee Perez, $12,947.66 was raised for SPAC. A special thanks to Tu Tu, Branch 100, and Woodley Moy, Branch 202, for working the SPAC table.

Also, special thanks to Worcester, MA, Branch 6 and President Dave Lum for developing the SPAC Walkathon pin. The pin brought in $440 for SPAC. A great job by all—our future depends on it!

Get involved—it’s personal. And never forget, increasing membership demonstrates leadership.