7/30/09: This week, NTEU National President Colleen Kelley sent letters to Chairmen Carl Levin (D-MI) and Ike Skelton (D-MO), of the Senate and House Armed Services Committee who will be the lead negotiators on the Conference Committee to reconcile the differences between the two versions of the Department of Defense (DOD) Authorization bill for fiscal year 2010. She also sent identical letters to Ranking members Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Representative Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA). These letters urged retention of the House-passed provisions on unused FERS sick leave and the package of federal employee/retiree provisions that the Senate was unable to add last week to its version of the DOD bill. You can review them here and here.

As you will see in the attached letters we also opposed the addition of a new provision on reemployed part-time annuitants that we believe is unnecessary and could actually have an adverse affect on the current federal workforce. The House and Senate are expected to meet in the upcoming weeks, and NTEU will continue to push for retention of the House provisions in the final legislative package.