Trump isn’t the only one targeting federal employees. House Republicans are pushing cuts to pension benefits

After months of contending with the Trump administration’s multipronged effort to downsize the federal workforce, government employees are now facing the possibility of another major change that could push even more of them out the door.

After months of contending with the Trump administration’s multi-pronged effort to downsize the federal workforce, government employees are now facing the possibility of another major change that could push even more of them out the door. House Republicans are looking to make several big adjustments to federal workers’ retirement benefits to help pay for the party’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package. The House Oversight Committee last week approved a plan that would squeeze $50 billion in savings out of the retirement system over the next decade. “They’re going to charge people more for the benefit, and then they’re going to reduce the benefit by changing the formula for how the benefit is calculated,” Jacqueline Simon, policy director of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal workers union, told reporters on Monday. The cuts could lead workers eligible for retirement to head for the exits in an effort to lock in their current benefits, union leaders say. Congressional Republicans have long wanted to overhaul federal staffers’ pension system, as did President Donald Trump during his first term. But their efforts typically did not advance far. In the current political environment, however, the policy push may have a greater chance of succeeding.