The government could save about $280 billion during the next decade by paring the size of the federal workforce, spending less on federal pay raises and pensions, and adopting a more conservative inflation gauge to calculate cost-of-living adjustments for civilian retirees and other participants in federal benefits programs, the Congressional Budget Office said in its latest rundown of deficit cutting options.

The update comes as a House-Senate conference committee looks at ways to avoid another round of sequester-related budget cuts next year as well as means for reducing future deficits over the long haul. Both congressional Republicans and the Obama administration, for example, have endorsed replacing the current consumer price index with the “chained CPI” to set COLAs for federal retirees, Social Security recipients and other federal program beneficiaries. By 2023, that shift would save about $162 billion, the CBO estimated.