U.S. 2024 Legislative Advocacy Conference
The following issue papers are put together in advance of our U.S. 2024 Legislative Advocacy Conference in collaboration with our Local affiliates and staff. Throughout the year, both in Canada and the United States, we are actively providing our input, as well as offering proposals, when it comes to public legislation that impacts our members, beyond what is offered below. Download PDFs of IFPTE Issue Briefs below.
Creating a Trade Framework that Works for All Workers, Communities, the Environment, and the Public Interest
As a union representing workers in export-driven manufacturing sectors, IFPTE supports rethinking our approach to globalization in order to reindustrialize our economy and implement a trade policy that supports workers, communities, and the public interest. Congress and the Biden Administration should continue developing a new set of global policies to reverse the accumulated damage caused by the NAFTA model’s distorted, corporate-driven power relationships that encouraged the wholesale movement of production and jobs out of our domestic economy.
Workers Need Labor Law Reform Now More Than Ever
The PRO Act, the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, and the No Tax Breaks for Union Busters Act are needed to level the playing field between workers who want to form and join unions and employers who regularly exploit weaknesses in the current law to frustrate union organizing and interfere with workers’ legal rights to organize and bargain collectively. Further, the Tax Fairness for Workers Act would restore tax deductions for union dues and expenses that were repealed in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Enact the Social Security 2100 Act - Important Now More Than Ever
America faces a looming retirement crisis and an immediate solution lies in shoring up and strengthening popular and successful social programs that are critical to the economic security of current and future retirees. Unfortunately, some of the most popular and successful social programs, programs critical to current and future retirees, continue to be targeted for cuts as an alleged solution to budget deficits. The Social Security 2100 Act also repeals the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which unfairly denies benefits to many retired government employees and spouses of deceased government workers. In IFPTE’s view, the Social Security 2100 Act is a common-sense and fiscally responsible approach to this crisis.
Protecting Our Nation’s Veterans – It's the Least We Can Do
Without question, protecting the interests of our veterans should be a bipartisan priority for Congress. From providing quality healthcare through the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to protecting the benefits that come with the GI bill, to ensuring that Veterans Preference hiring and retention protections stay in place in the federal government, policies that impact the lives of veterans should be addressed fairly and without partisanship.
Respecting Our Nation’s Federal Workers
Since 2011, federal employees have sacrificed $200 billion for our nation through pay freezes and pension cuts that went primarily towards deficit reduction. Government employees have also endured furlough days and serious economic suffering due to the 2013 and three 2019 government shutdowns. These dedicated civil servants have withstood misguided workforce policies and anti-union attacks during the last administration that sought to weaken their collective bargaining and due process rights as well as undermine merit system principles. IFPTE will work with Congress and the Biden Administration to protect the civil service, restore federal employee compensation, and improve benefits, all of which are necessary for good government and for federal agencies’ ability to recruit and retain the best talent America has to offer.
Modernize the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) Program and Update the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) Annuity Compensation
More than one-third of federal civilian employees are eligible for retirement in the next five years, and fewer than 6 percent of current federal employees are under the age of 30. Along with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic and years of pay freezes and low pay increases, retaining and recruiting federal workers is becoming increasingly challenging across the federal government. IFPTE requests Congress and the Biden Administration support the federal government’s recruitment and retention efforts by modernizing life insurance and pension benefits for current and prospective federal employees.
USACE Locks and Dams and Hydro Dams are Critical Infrastructure that Requires Onsite Operations and Fully Staffed Onsite Personnel Levels
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is in the process of developing an implementation plan for new remote offsite control and operation of federal hydroelectric dams and navigational locks and dams with little to no Congressional oversight and public information. Replacing onsite lock and dam operators and hydroelectric dam operators with remote operations creates new physical risks and cybersecurity risks that will impact public safety, commerce, and national security.
Army Corps of Engineers Park Rangers are Inherently Governmental Jobs
IFPTE believes it would not only be a disservice to the taxpayer to privatize USACE park ranger jobs, it would be in violation of the FAIR Act, as these jobs should be designated as inherently governmental.
Boost State and Local Governments, Reinvest in Infrastructure and Public Services, and Drive Economic Recovery
With the enactment of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the 117th Congress and the Biden Administration delivered much-needed aid to states and localities and provided historic and long overdue infrastructure investment throughout the U.S. We look to the 118th Congress to provide accountability and ensure that federal infrastructure investments deliver quality public services, support the role of inherently governmental work, and provide an opportunity for equitable development and investments in communities.
Our National Economic Policies and Investments in Innovation Require Strategic STEM Workforce Development and Reform of High-Skills Work Visa Programs
Over the last three years, Congress has passed historic legislation – the CHIPS and Science Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the Inflation Reduction Act – to direct federal support and incentivize private domestic investment to advanced manufacturing, R&D, reshoring supply chains, and to transition to clean energy. For this industrial policy to succeed, Congress and the Biden Administration must commit to STEM workforce development with unions as key and leading partners. Congress should also reform high-skill guestworker programs such as the H-1B and the Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa programs, reforms which are long overdue.
Congress Must Reject Any Proposal to Create a Fiscal Commission – It’s a Fast Track to Cutting or Privatizing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Slashing Federal Employee Benefits
In recent months, some Members of the 118th Congress have proposed legislation to create a fiscal commission to reduce the federal deficit. Past fiscal commissions have proven how disastrous the recommendations that emerge from these closed-door deliberations can be. Instead of putting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, federal employee benefits, and other programs on the chopping block, Congress should pass legislation to shore up the trust funds and funding streams.