The Senate Parliamentarian has removed sections of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) budget reconciliation legislation which would cut employee rights and benefits.  
 
Late Sunday evening, the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that several provisions in the HSGAC budget reconciliation legislation violate the Senate's "Byrd Rule." This rule allows the Senate Parliamentarian to remove non-budgetary items from reconciliation consideration. NTEU and our union allies have worked diligently over recent weeks to ensure senators had the information needed to raise Byrd Rule points of order and request parliamentary review before the full bill reaches the Senate floor.
 
The ruling removes the following provisions: 

• Making new federal employees pay more for FERS in exchange for maintaining civil service rights;
• Requiring federal employees to pay a filing fee to appeal decisions to the Merit Systems Protection Board;
• Requiring unions to reimburse the government for office space, equipment, parking, and salaries of representatives on official time; and
• Allowing the president to broadly reorganize the federal government with minimal congressional oversight. 

However, the Parliamentarian retained language requiring any organization receiving payroll deductions from federal employees to pay a 10% service fee to the government. This affects all unions and non-profits/charities that receive contributions from federal workers through payroll deduction. The border security funding language, including the House-passed provision to hire an additional 5,000 CBP Officers, was also maintained.
 
This represents a major victory for federal employees and their families; one that would not have been possible without the tremendous efforts of NTEU members who contacted their representatives to oppose these anti-worker proposals. While our work is far from finished and the reconciliation text may still change, we should all take pride in this significant accomplishment.
 
Doreen P. Greenwald
National President