From the President

To support legislation and regulations beneficial to federal civilian employees and annuitants and potential annuitants under any federal civilian retirement system and to oppose those detrimental to their interests.

To promote the general welfare of federal civilian employees and annuitants and potential annuitants, to advise and assist them with respect to their rights under retirement, health and other employee and retiree benefits laws and regulations, and to represent their interests before appropriate authorities.

To cooperate with other organizations and associations in furtherance of these general objectives.

We live in the age of hyperpartisanship, conspiracy theories, alternative facts and the questioning of science. In our country, members of both political parties are being pushed further to the right and the left, with few people actively looking to find common ground. America is as divided and depleted as ever. Our newly elected legislators and president have been left with the impossible task of governing a polarized country.

It has been more than a year since the first case of coronavirus arrived in the United States. The virus has now claimed the lives of more than 500,000 Americans as of press time and has left many of us looking to find available vaccines. Our economy shrank by 3.5 percent in 2020, shuttering businesses, schools and events, and marking the first annual contraction since the Great Recession. Our nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) has suffered its largest decline since 1947, and we have experienced the steepest economic collapse since the Great Depression, wiping out more than 20 million jobs and years of economic growth. What do we have to look forward to? Are there any expectations for a return to pre-pandemic life?

As bleak as it may feel, there is also some good news to be had and optimistic predictions ahead: • The administration has set an early agenda focused on the health and economic crises. • Economists expect our economy to bounce back quickly in the second half of 2021, assuming enough Americans are vaccinated, and a larger coronavirus relief package is in the works. (Remember, any new spending today will be paid for by increased federal debt and result in possible tax increases down the road.) • Passage of the omnibus in late 2020 has funded federal agencies through September 2021. • Federal employees have received a 1 percent pay raise. • The expansion of federal employee leave authorities involving use-or-lose annual leave allowed employees to carryover 25 percent more leave than the normal limit, and paid parental leave is now available to employees who were left out of the original legislation, providing up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child. • A cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) of 1.3 percent was paid to most federal retirees.

The big story of 2021 could be a very hopeful one. This will be the year of the coronavirus vaccines. Though administration of the vaccines is off to a slow start nationwide, efforts will ramp up and eventually protect most Americans. We hope to see the clouds of grief, frustration and helplessness lift this year. We might even learn a few lessons that will help us better prepare for what comes next.

Stay safe.

natpres@narfe.org