President's FY 2020 Budget Proposal

The President released his Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposal yesterday. FY 202 begins on October 1, 2019. While this Office of Management and Budget document recognizes the existence of the Federal ("GSA")Employees Health Benefits Program, it does not recognize the existence the Office of Personnel Management. As Bloomberg Government predicted (previous FEHBlog post), the FEHBP entry in the budget proposal (page 127) is listed under the General Services Administration ("GSA").

A Government Reorganization fact sheet accompanying the budget proposal states in pertinent part that

The [OPM] reorganization will continue in FY 2019 with planning and initial implementation, including the transfer of background investigations to the Department of Defense and other OPM functions to the General Services Administration (GSA), to the extent permitted by law. The Budget reflects the complete reorganization of OPM’s remaining functions within GSA in FY 2020, including OPM’s Retirement Services and Healthcare & Insurance organizations, through a combination of legislative proposals and appropriations to cover GSA’s transition costs of assuming OPM’s remaining functions.

By the way the FEHBP entry states that GSA is seeking legislative approval to modify the FEHBP government contribution in a way that would save the federal treasury $1.884 billion over the period 2022 through 2029. Details will be forthcoming likely next week.