Union calls out Rothfus for voting to cut federal LEO wages

Source: American Federation for Government Employees

Washington, D.C. - October 24, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- The nation's largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees, is calling out Rep. Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania for voting to slash wages for federal law enforcement officers as part of the House budget resolution.

A provision in the 2018 House budget, which passed the House on Oct. 5, would cut at least $32 billion in retirement benefits from federal employees. One of the provisions would eliminate supplemental payments to employees who must retire before Social Security payments kick in at age 62, including law enforcement officers and federal firefighters.

AFGE has posted five digital billboards near the local offices of Rep. Rothfus, who represents Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district in the U.S. House, to raise public awareness of his vote in favor of these cuts. The billboards are located near his offices in Pittsburgh, Johnstown, and Beaver.

"Rep. Rothfus should be ashamed of himself for voting to cut the pay and benefits of federal law enforcement officers and other federal civil servants, many of whom live in his district," said Phil Glover, national vice president for AFGE's 3rd District, which includes Pennsylvania.

The billboards, which will be up for the next four weeks, ask residents to call Rothfus' office at 844-669-5146 and complain about the cuts.

"Cutting the pay and benefits of civil servants who in many cases have risked their lives to protect the public is disgraceful," Glover said. "These cuts would affect tens of thousands of Pennsylvania families who live in the congressman's own district."

There are 30,480 federal employees and retirees in Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district, according to 2014 data from Office of Personnel Management.

In addition to cutting payments for retiring law enforcement officers, the House budget resolution also calls for increasing how much current federal employees pay into their fully funded pension and eliminating the defined pension benefit for new federal workers.

The Senate has passed its own 2018 budget resolution that does not include the cuts to federal employees' pay and benefits.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 700,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.