Top Republicans on the House Education and Workforce Committee are pushing for an investigation into the long-standing workers’ compensation program for federal employees, saying the program is particularly “susceptible to waste, fraud and abuse.”
In a letter to the Government Accountability Office on Monday, Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.), chairman of the workforce protections subcommittee, requested a further examination into areas for reforms of the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) program, which provides benefits to federal employees who get injured or become ill from work.
In their letter, the GOP committee leaders argued that the program is “overly generous” to federal employees. The FECA program, which dates back to 1916, hasn’t seen any major updates in over 50 years.
Yes, it’s a mess with crooked doctors on the employee side and incompetent ones on the labor side that deny claims based on pieces of paper. It’s such a mess that the employee is guilty until proven innocent when injured. If you can’t come back to work within 18 months, it’s time to hit the road.