COVID-19 impact on 2021 COLA, pay raise and WEP/GPO

Published: May 27, 2020, 3:08 p.m.

According to some political pundits the 2020 presidential election may be decided by voters who are 60-plus years old. They supported candidate Donald Trump, age 73, last time but, according to some polls, are leaning toward former Vice President Joe Biden, age 77, as of right now. While many candidates court the younger vote, the numbers show that on election day older Americans out vote their children and grandchildren by a substantial degree. That could be an important factor in places like California, Texas, Florida, Maryland and Virginia where one-third of the nation’s 2.6 million federal retirees and survivors live and vote. Former feds are also an important chunk of the electorate in key states like Arizona (60,826), Florida, (186,027), Michigan (47,422) and Minnesota (31,151). Today on Your Turn, I’ll be talking with Jessica Klement of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees about the possibility of a pay raise, the outlook (grim) for a retiree COLA and the long, as in very long, shot chances of some kind of reform or change in WEP-GPO. NARFE is part of a coalition working on the issues. She’ll explain the difference between plans to repeal vs. revise WEP and GPO, and she’ll explain what its like to lobby Congress in a normal year, vs. times like these.