A budget resolution that ups federal employee pension contributions and cuts the federal workforce is on the fast track for passage.

Both the Senate and the House voted and passed differing budget blueprints for fiscal 2016 in late March, but must now work to reconcile the differences and then vote on a final unified budget.

A final vote is expected by April 15 - just a few days after Congress returns from recess, according to sources in the House and Senate familiar with the negotiations.

The budget blueprint is non-binding and does not need to be signed by the President. Instead, the Senate and the House will use the budget during the appropriations process to decide how much funding federal programs and agencies get in fiscal 2016.

Both the Senate and the House versions would increase federal employee pension contributions to six percent or more of salaries. The House version would also cut the federal workforce by 10 percent through attrition and increase Postal Service employee contributions to their health insurance premiums.

The budget proposal also decreases the rate of return on the Thrift Savings Plan's government securities fund (G Fund) and encourages the elimination of the Federal Employee Retirement System annuity supplement.

The Defense Department would see its budget boosted by more than $20 billion in fiscal 2016 – placed into an account not subject to the budget caps imposed by sequestration.

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