Word gets out that you’re set to receive the biggest federal retirement package in U.S. history, and you’ve got to expect it won’t sit well with everyone on Capitol Hill.
But be that person and call a sitting U.S. senator a moron, and he might just name a bill after you.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) announced Thursday he plans to introduce a bill named after Dr. Anthony Fauci after he clashed with the nation’s top infectious diseases expert at a Senate hearing earlier this week.
Fauci was caught on a “hot mic” calling Marshall “a moron” after Marshall asked him about his annual salary and financial disclosures. Fauci appeared incredulous at the line of questioning and Marshall’s staff’s apparent inability to track down the publicly available information.
Fauci’s retirement benefits from the federal government are set to exceed $350,000 per year—making it the largest federal retirement package in U.S. history.
Complaining that the records of Fauci were not readily accessible to the public, Marshall is set to introduce the “Financial Accountability for Uniquely Compensated Individuals (FAUCI) Act.”
The bill seeks to require the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) to publish a list of government officials whose financial disclosures are not publicly available.
In the aftermath of Tuesday’s contentious hearing, which also included an angry exchange with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), The Hill reports that multiple non-profit organizations confirmed that while Fauci’s 2019 financial disclosures are public, they are difficult to obtain.
During the hearing, Marshall asked Fauci: “Would you be willing to submit to Congress and the public a financial disclosure that includes your past and current investments?”
“My financial disclosure is public knowledge and has been so for the last 37 years or so,” Fauci responded, later adding Marshall is “so misinformed, it’s extraordinary.”
“We cannot find them. Our office cannot find them. Where would they be if they are public knowledge?” Marshall asked.
Marshall said his office unsuccessfully attempted to track down Fauci’s financial records “for weeks,” and submitted requests to both Fauci’s staff and the National Institutes of Health. Marshall has requested Fauci hand over unredacted copies of his financial records to his office by today (Friday).
About that retirement package…
In case you missed it just before the end of 2021, Forbes auditors at OpenTheBooks.com revealed in a Dec. 28 article that Fauci’s retirement benefits from the federal government are set to exceed $350,000 per year—making it the largest federal retirement package in U.S. history. His pension and benefits would continue to increase through annual cost-of-living adjustments. Fauci has logged 55 years of service as a federal employee.
Of course Dr. Fauci, who turned 81 on Christmas Eve, seems to be in no hurry to start collecting those retirement benefits, saying recently he has no plans to retire until the COVID-19 pandemic is “under control.”
Forbes notes Fauci’s big salary boost came in 2004 under the George W. Bush Administration when he received a “permanent pay adjustment” for his biodefense work to “appropriately compensate him for the level of responsibility.” From 2004 through 2007, Fauci received a 68% pay increase from $200,000 to $335,000 per year.
He was the single highest-paid federal employee for the second consecutive year in 2021, earning more than President Joe Biden, four-star generals and roughly 4.3 million other government workers. As director of the NIAID, Fauci earned $434,312 in 2020, the latest year available, up from $417,608 in 2019 and $399,625 in 2018.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management says federal employees with Fauci’s length of service can retire to earn 80% percent of their highest 3-year average salary, plus credit for their sick leave. While admitting his (as yet unavailable) 2021 and 2022 salaries are likely higher, using his 2018-2020 salaries, Forbes auditors calculated that if he’d retired at the end of FY 2020, he’d receive a federal pension of $333,745 a year, plus cost-of-living increases.
He’s also likely eligible for an annuity paid by the government, as after serving 10 years, federal employees are eligible for a payment of 2% of their high 3-year average salary. Forbes said that would add at least an extra $8,344 a year.
Fauci’s far from alone in being a federal employee entitled to a well-funded retirement, as we reported recently that there are more than 100,000 current and former federal employees with Thrift Savings Plan balances of at least $1 million. Someone in that plan—it is not known who—had a balance of $10.9 million as of the end of 2021.
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