CBO – Reconciliation Recommendations of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Legislation Summary

H. Con. Res. 14, the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025, instructed the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to recommend legislative changes that would decrease deficits by a specified amount over the 2025-2034 period. As part of the reconciliation process, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform approved legislation on April 30, 2025, that would decrease deficits.

The legislation would

• Increase some employees’ contributions to Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS) and eliminate the retirement supplement for most employees in the system
• Change the years of salary history used for calculating retirement benefits for most employees to five years from three years
• Increase pension contributions of new federal hires who choose not to be at-will employees
• Require eligibility verification for dependents in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program, expand fraud assessments of the program, and deny or disenroll ineligible dependents
• Impose private-sector mandates by reducing the value of certain earned benefits

Estimated budgetary effects would mainly stem from

• Increasing revenues from federal employees’ contributions to FERS
• Reducing federal spending on retirement annuities and annuity supplements
• Verifying FEHB eligibility for dependents and disenrolling ineligible dependents

Areas of significant uncertainty include

• Anticipating federal employees’ responses to changes in FERS contributions and benefits
• Projecting how many new federal workers would choose to be at-will employees
• Predicting the number and timing of dependents who would be found ineligible for FEHB
• Projecting reductions in spending generated by disenrolling ineligible dependents from FEHB