Lankford, Fetterman Want to Bring Clarity to Federal Retirement Pension for Federal Law Enforcement

WASHINGTON, DC— US Senators James Lankford (R-OK), John Fetterman (D-PA), Chair and Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Border Management, Federal Workforce and Regulatory Affairs reintroduced theRetirement Annuity Supplement Clarity Act,which addresses the way the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) calculates retirement annuity settlements for federal employees, primarily for federal law enforcement personnel, who have a settlement agreements dividing their annuity.
“Law enforcement officers are protecting us at the southern border and around the country and should be able to focus on their mission, not on bureaucratic decisions complicating their retirement calculations,”said Lankford.“Our commonsense proposal solves a long-standing discrepancy with how annuities are calculated for some of our law enforcement personnel and gives OPM maximum clarity for how Congress wants them to handle these payments. This ensures courts’ explicit orders are followed when dividing annuity supplement payments, so retirees and the courts decide how settlements are carried out, not OPM.”
“I’ve always been proud to support those who put their life on the line every day—they represent the very best of us,”saidFetterman. “This bill is about playing it fair and making sure our federal law enforcement officers get the retirement benefits they worked hard for. I’m proud to join Senator Lankford in doing right by those who served our communities to keep us all safe.”
“For nearly a decade, federal retirees were subjected to OPM’s unlawful reinterpretation of the law regarding the division of a Retirement Annuity Supplement that jeopardized their financial security and ignored settled court orders,”said National President Mat Silverman of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.“Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit made clear that OPM overstepped its authority—but court rulings alone are not enough. That is why FLEOA is grateful for the leadership of Sens. Lankford and Fetterman in reintroducing the ‘Retirement Annuity Supplement Clarity Act’ to permanently protect retirees, restore what was wrongly taken, and ensure that no future OPM can again rewrite the law at the expense of those who served.”
Background
The Retirement Annuity Supplement Clarity Act clarifies that OPM has the flexibility to comply with a court order that divides the annuity supplement. The bill repays annuitants who were retired on or before June 30, 2016, and entitled to an annuity supplement subject to a court order that was silent on division of the supplement or expressly excluded the supplement from division, and whose annuity supplement was recomputed retroactively. Additionally, the bill clarifies that any collection of overpayments to former spouses due to this recalculation is waived.
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