Federal Retirement Fairness Act
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Connolly (for himself, Mr. Valadao, Ms. Budzinski, Mr. Bacon, …
Summary
What This Bill Does: The Federal Retirement Fairness Act is a simple bill that makes a small change to federal law. It says that if you worked temporarily for the U.S. government in certain jobs (like being a postal worker or working for Congress) after January 1, 1989, that time can now count towards your retirement benefits. This is often called "creditable service." Before this bill, only people who started these temporary jobs before January 1, 1989 could get this benefit.
Who Benefits and How: Current and former federal employees who worked temporarily for the government after 1988 will benefit from this bill. If you're one of them, you might be able to count that time towards your retirement benefits. This means you could potentially retire earlier or with a better pension. Here's how it works: if you made less than $120,000 a year in these temporary jobs, you can now make a payment (called a "deposit") to the government to count this service. Once you do that, it'll be like you've always been working for the federal government for retirement purposes.
Who Bears the Burden and How: The main group affected by this bill is the U.S. government itself. It will have to pay out more in retirement benefits because of this change. However, since the payments are voluntary (you choose whether or not to make a deposit), it's expected that only those who benefit significantly will do so. This means the overall cost to taxpayers should be relatively low.
Key Provisions:
- The bill changes federal law to allow temporary employees who started their jobs after December 31, 1988 to count that time towards their retirement benefits.
- To take advantage of this change, you need to have made less than $120,000 a year in these temporary jobs and make a payment (a "deposit") to the government.
- The Office of Personnel Management will notify eligible employees about this new option and create rules for how it works.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Amends Title 5, United States Code to provide that civilian service in a temporary position after December 31, 1988, may be creditable service under the Federal Employees Retirement System.
Policy Domains
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Amends section 8411(3) of title 5, United States Code to include civilian service in a temporary position after December 31, 1988 as creditable service under the Federal Employees Retirement System.
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