Hold on tight

Well, folks, we hope you enjoy (or enjoyed) your Labor Day holiday. Because as you probably already know, there will some rough days ahead for feds after Washington kicks back into full gear.

Among the threats in the mix:

• The move by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to jack up the contribution that Federal Employees Retirement System participants currently make to their defined benefit pension.
  
• The “Gang of Six” proposal to squeeze tens of billions of dollars of savings from federal civilian retirement over 10 years.
  
• The idea being bandied about in talks between Congress and the White House to cut federal retirement costs by using the highest five years of salary (rather than the current high three) to calculate annuities.
  
• And if the website SavingThePostalService.com, just launched by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), is any indication, U.S. Postal Service workers will start feeling the pressure as Issa’s effort to reform (i.e., downsize) USPS takes on a lot of renewed vigor.

This list just scratches the surface, of course. The tighter budgets that begin kicking in with the start of the new fiscal year in October will impose a whole new set of pressures on federal workers.

So we hope everyone is relaxed and rested because fiscal 2012 is likely to make 2011 look like the good old days.