FederalDaily - January 24, 2007

FEHBP Premium Rate Rise Has Slowed, GAO Says

Although average Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) premiums continue to rise, the rate of increase has slowed recently, said a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. GAO looked at the nature and extent of the premium increases, which result in higher costs to the federal government and plan enrollees. GAO said officials from most of the plans that had lower-than-average cost growth cited adjustments for previously overestimated projected expenses. These officials also cited benefit changes that resulted in less generous coverage for prescription drugs, the Jan. 22 report said. GAO’s analysis of financial data provided by these plans found that that their increase in per-enrollee expenditures for prescription drugs was significantly lower than average in recent years. The Office of Personnel Management, which oversees FEHBP—negotiating benefits and premiums and administering reserve accounts—said the GAO analysis confirms its own data. According to the report, “growth in average FEHBP premiums slowed from a peak of 12.9 percent for 2002 to 1.8 percent for 2007.” To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-141.

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Feds Slash Wildlife Refuge Staff in Midwest

Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) officials are making drastic reductions and redeployments of staff in the National Wildlife Refuge System throughout the Midwest—cutting 70 positions in eight states. The reductions will mean the elimination of environmental education programs for school children and an endangered species recovery program, said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife. The Midwest region is home to 54 national wildlife refuges, 12 wetland management districts and more than 1 million acres of public land and water. According to FWS officials, refuges in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri will lose staff positions. Two refuges in Minnesota—Hamden Slough and Crane Meadows—and the Driftless Area refuge in Iowa will lose all their staff. In addition, FWS will not allow refuge managers to fill 35 already vacant positions, the group said. “Today the refuge system is suffering the steepest cuts in its history,” Schlickeisen said Jan. 19. To see more, go to: www.defenders.org/releases/pr2007/pr011907.html.

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NTEU Seeks to Open IRS Collections File

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) lawsuit to force the IRS to open files on its controversial effort to use private collection agencies to collect unpaid tax debts. Seven months ago the union filed a FoIA request for information on the companies bidding for the work, on the contracts that were awarded and on the protests filed by losing bidders, said NTEU President Colleen Kelley on Jan. 22. Under FoIA, the IRS must either respond within 10 working days or use that time to request an extension—the IRS has done neither, Kelley said. The NTEU lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that the IRS “has no legal authority” to withhold the requested information from NTEU and requests the release of the records to the union. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org.

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