FERS is the largest of the government's in-house retirement plans. The Federal Employees Retirement System. It covers more than 1.2 million government scientists, engineers, postal clerks, astronauts, federal judges and others hired since the mid-1980s. FERS replaced the old Civil Service Retirement System which covers just under half a million working feds.

FERS flu is an affliction that hits tens of thousands of federal and postal workers almost exclusively during their last year or two of service. Bosses find that once hale-and-hearty retirement-eligible FERS employees suddenly take a lot of leave. Many suspect that the FERS workers, who are under a use-it-or-lose-it system, are simply burning up sick days they haven't used.

But the FERS flu might be wiped out if Congress passes a plan to give those feds the same incentive to save their sick leave. Feds under the CSRS have, since the late 1960s, been able to credit their unused sick leave toward retirement. If, for example, a CSRS employee is eligible to retire after 27 years service, and has banked a year's worth of sick leave, he will be credited with having 28 years of service. That will boost the CSRS retiree's lifetime, indexed to inflation, annuity by 2 percent.

Before CSRS employees were given the incentive to save their sick leave (like for when they are sick) government auditors found that the typical employee used more than 40 days of sick leave in his last year of service.

It recently dawned on Congress that the incentive that helped stamp out the CSRS flu years ago might work for FERS employees. Reps. James Moran (D-Va.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.) cosponsored a bill that would give FERS workers the same sick leave credit now available to CSRS employees.

The good news is that the FERS flu cure plan is tucked inside legislation to further regulate the tobacco industry. It passed the House easily last year. It ran into trouble in the Senate in part because of objections from Senators from states where tobacco is a major, if not the major cash crop. They point out that things like orchids, pineapples and oranges don't do all that well in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and even Connecticut which is a tobacco producer.

Backers of the plan will try the same approach this year. The new FERS flu bill, H.R. 1256, is again wrapped inside a larger package that would give the FDA more oversight over tobacco. The bill passed the Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this month. It is chaired by fed-friendly Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA). Next stop is the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee where the package is expected to have smooth sailing.

After that, it will be scheduled for a full House vote. Once approved, as expected, it will go to the Senate. It will face many of the same tobacco-related obstacles it did last year.

This is a one-step-at-a-time thing.

The FERS flu bill, while popular with feds and their political allies, isn't something most members of Congress, or most of the American public, is panting to pass. If it is going to pass, it will be on the politics of tobacco regulation.

Nearly Useless Factoid
by Suzanne Kubota

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. The Census Bureau points out that "some 36½ million Americans consider themselves to be of Irish ancestry - more than eight times the population of Ireland itself."

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com