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Federal workers do critical work that Americans depend on - think taxes, Medicare, Social Security. Now, these are not always the most exciting jobs, nor the best paid. Still, many stay for decades because of what comes at the end - excellent retirement benefits. Now Congress may be chipping away at those, as NPR's Andrea Hsu reports.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Michele Santa Maria was 18 when she landed a job with the Social Security Administration in 1990.
MICHELE SANTA MARIA: I started pretty much right out of high school, so about a year out of high school.
HSU: She answered phones, sorted the mail, then worked her way up to customer service and then claims specialist, where she helped people with all kinds of claims.
SANTA MARIA: Retirement claims, survivor claims, family claims, disability claims.
HSU: Eventually, she became a claims technical expert, training others and working on complicated cases. The work, she says, was hard. Antiquated computer systems added to the tedium.
SANTA MARIA: You know, it's a thankless job sometimes, but we're going to stick it out 'cause we believe in what we do. And yes, we want to get to that finish line.
HSU: The finish line being retirement - typically, after 30 years, federal workers who are at least 57 can retire with excellent benefits for life.
SANTA MARIA: It was the reason why I stayed so long.
HSU: But now, as part of President Trump's tax and spending bill, the House has voted to end one part of the government's retirement package - something called the special retirement supplement. It's aimed at federal workers who retire before they're old enough to collect Social Security. The way it works is, at 57, they start collecting a portion of the Social Security they'd be entitled to at 62. But now that could be gone. Santa Maria heard about this last month.
SANTA MARIA: I was in shock, and I thought to myself, there's no way they're going to do this to us.
HSU: Especially to those in her shoes. She just retired in April at age 53, earlier than she'd wanted to, after being offered an early out. She feared getting fired in President Trump's downsizing of the government. Now, if the Senate agrees to this benefit cut, Santa Maria estimates she'll lose a total of $110,000 that she'd been counting on for her retirement.
SANTA MARIA: So it puts me in a really bad situation.
HSU: The White House did not answer NPR's questions about the proposed cut. On the other side of this debate is Rachel Greszler with the conservative Heritage Foundation. She's long argued that the government's retirement package is unnecessarily generous, far outstripping what most Americans get. And the special retirement supplement...
RACHEL GRESZLER: This really is a purely windfall benefit.
HSU: In her view, why should taxpayers give federal employees access to Social Security benefits long before everyone else? And Greszler also thinks maybe those retirement perks are keeping too many federal workers locked in.
GRESZLER: That might be a good thing if you're retaining the right workers, but it might not be a good thing if you're preventing people from pursuing something that they would be better at.
HSU: Greszler says, having people cycle in and out can be helpful. It certainly happens in the private sector. Maybe it'd be good for government. Michele Santa Maria disagrees. She says Americans need civil servants who can expertly navigate the government's complicated systems.
SANTA MARIA: If people are going to come in for three to five years, the quality - it's not going to be there.
HSU: Santa Maria actually voted for Trump. She'd hoped that DOGE would come in and upgrade their computer systems, help them work more efficiently.
SANTA MARIA: But what they're doing now is just eliminating the people and leaving the rest with the outdated computer system.
HSU: And now, with part of her retirement on the chopping block, she's even more disappointed. She says, if this administration wants to change things up for newer hires, OK. Those people have time to adjust their plans. But for the thousands of people like her, who've served for decades...
SANTA MARIA: The government should keep its promise to us.
HSU: She says, we've dedicated our lives to the American people. Give us what we've earned.
Andrea Hsu, NPR News.
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