The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that would help thousands of federal employees whose agencies placed them in the wrong retirement systems.
The Federal Retirement Coverage Corrections Act, H.R. 416, passed the House by voice vote. The bill would "make whole" as many as 20,000 civil servants who face smaller pensions than they expected because they were placed in the incorrect retirement system.
"Every victim should have a realistic opportunity to the retirement correction that best addresses their unfortunate circumstances," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., on the House floor Tuesday. "They also have the right to receive a benefit that is comparable to what they would have earned in the absence of the federal government's error."
Employees affected by the errors have been lobbying for a fix for as long as five years. Some employees didn't discover the errors until they neared retirement.
A 60-year-old worker at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine had been planning to retire at the age of 62. He found out that because of his agency's error, he owed back Social Security taxes of $10,000 and would have to contribute $600 a month to the Thrift Savings Plan. To cover the costs, he was told he would also have to work until the age of 65.
The errors arose during the transition from the old Civil Service Retirement System to the Federal Employees Retirement System in the mid-1980s.
The House passed a similar corrections bill last year, but the Senate did not act on it. The Senate has not yet addressed the bill this year, either. The version passed by the House this week does not include provisions affecting Social Security or tax rules. Scarborough said he will try to get the Social Security and tax provisions added back into the bill if the Senate passes it.
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