New legislation affecting thousands of federal employees who were placed in the wrong retirement system received the approval of a Senate committee last week.
On Tuesday, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed the Federal Erroneous Retirement Coverage Corrections Act (S. 1232). The bill would give affected employees the choice of moving into the retirement plan they should have been in or staying in the plan their agencies erroneously placed them in.
"Through no fault of their own, many government workers and their families found themselves placed in the wrong retirement system. This bill provides them long-awaited relief," said Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., a co-sponsor of the bill.
The retirement snafu arose in the mid-1980s, during the transition from the old Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Confused agencies placed some employees in CSRS when they should have been in FERS and some in FERS when they should have been in CSRS. Today, agencies must immediately correct such errors when they are discovered.
Employees erroneously placed in CSRS have been hit hard. They face severely reduced retirement benefits because of the time lost when they could have been contributing to the Thrift Savings Plan.
The House passed a corrections bill, H.R. 416, in March. The House bill would "make whole" the employees, while the Senate bill would require employees who opt into FERS to make retroactive payments into their Thrift Savings Plan accounts. The Clinton administration backs the less expensive-and less generous-Senate version, while employees affected by the error tend to favor the House version.
The Senate committee also approved the Organ Donor Leave Act, S. 1334, which gives federal employees who serve as organ donors up to 30 days of paid leave. Current law provides only 7 days of paid leave to serve as either a bone marrow or organ donor.