Air America Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1297 To provide redress to the employees of Air America. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 24, 2021 Mr. GROTHMAN (for himself, Mrs. DEMINGS, Ms. BROWNLEY, Ms. NORTON, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. MAST, Mr. WALTZ, Mr. STEWART, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. LYNCH, Mr. KELLY of Mississippi, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. KELLER, Mr. KIM of New Jersey, Mr. COSTA, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. STEUBE, Mr. CRAWFORD, Mr. POCAN, Mr. GAETZ, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. MEIJER, Mr. GRIFFITH, Mr. STIVERS, Mr. RUTHERFORD, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. TRONE, Mr. TIFFANY, Mr. LOUDERMILK, Mrs. HARTZLER, Mr. GONZALEZ of Ohio, Ms. TITUS, Miss RICE of New York, Mr. GALLAGHER, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. SPEIER, Mr. HASTINGS, Mr. KILMER, Ms. HOULAHAN, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mr. POSEY, Ms. WILD, Mr. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY of New York, Mr. RYAN, Mr. CRIST, Mr. LUCAS, Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Ms. MENG, Mr. VAN DREW, Mr. TONKO, and Mrs. KIRK- PATRICK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com- mittee on Oversight and Reform A BILL To provide redress to the employees of Air America. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Air America Act of 4 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Mar 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1297.IH H1297 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1297 IH SEC. 2. AIR AMERICA. 1 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 2 (1) Air America, Incorporated (referred to in 3 this section as ‘‘Air America’’) and its related cover 4 corporate entities were wholly owned and controlled 5 by the United States Government and directed and 6 managed by the Department of Defense, the Depart- 7 ment of State, and the Central Intelligence Agency 8 from 1950 to 1976. 9 (2) Air America, a corporation owned by the 10 Government of the United States, constituted a 11 ‘‘Government corporation’’, as defined in section 103 12 of title 5, United States Code. 13 (3) It is established that the employees of Air 14 America and the other entities described in para- 15 graph (1) were Federal employees. 16 (4) The employees of Air America were retro- 17 actively excluded from the definition of the term 18 ‘‘employee’’ under section 2105 of title 5, United 19 States Code, on the basis of an administrative policy 20 change in paperwork requirements implemented by 21 the Office of Personnel Management 10 years after 22 the service of the employees had ended and, by ex- 23 tension, were retroactively excluded from the defini- 24 tion of the term ‘‘employee’’ under section 8331 of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Mar 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1297.IH H1297 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1297 IH title 5, United States Code, for retirement credit 1 purposes. 2 (5) The employees of Air America were paid as 3 Federal employees, with salaries subject to— 4 (A) the General Schedule under subchapter 5 III of chapter 53 of title 5, United States Code; 6 and 7 (B) the rates of basic pay payable to mem- 8 bers of the Armed Forces. 9 (6) The service and sacrifice of the employees 10 of Air America included— 11 (A) suffering a high rate of casualties in 12 the course of employment; 13 (B) saving thousands of lives in search and 14 rescue missions for downed United States air- 15 men and allied refugee evacuations; and 16 (C) lengthy periods of service in chal- 17 lenging circumstances abroad. 18 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 19 (1) the term ‘‘affiliated company’’, with respect 20 to Air America, includes Air Asia Company Limited, 21 CAT Incorporated, Civil Air Transport Company 22 Limited, and the Pacific Division of Southern Air 23 Transport; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Mar 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1297.IH H1297 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1297 IH (2) the term ‘‘qualifying service’’ means service 1 that— 2 (A) was performed by a United States cit- 3 izen as an employee of Air America or an affili- 4 ated company during the period beginning on 5 January 1, 1950, and ending on December 31, 6 1976; and 7 (B) is documented in the attorney-certified 8 corporate records of Air America or any affili- 9 ated company. 10 (c) TREATMENT AS FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT.—Any 11 period of qualifying service— 12 (1) is deemed to have been service of an em- 13 ployee (as defined in section 2105 of title 5, United 14 States Code) with the Federal Government; and 15 (2) shall be treated as creditable service by an 16 employee for purposes of subchapter III of chapter 17 83 of title 5, United States Code. 18 (d) RIGHTS.—An individual who performed quali- 19 fying service, or a survivor of such an individual, shall be 20 entitled to the rights, retroactive as applicable, provided 21 to employees and their survivors for creditable service 22 under the Civil Service Retirement System under sub- 23 chapter III of chapter 83 of title 5, United States Code, 24 with respect to that qualifying service. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Mar 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1297.IH H1297 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1297 IH (e) DEDUCTION, CONTRIBUTION, AND DEPOSIT RE- 1 QUIREMENTS.—The deposit of funds in the Treasury of 2 the United States made by Air America in the form of 3 a lump-sum payment apportioned in part to the Civil Serv- 4 ice Disability and Retirement Fund in 1976 is deemed to 5 satisfy the deduction, contribution, and deposit require- 6 ments under section 8334 of title 5, United States Code, 7 with respect to all periods of qualifying service. 8 (f) APPLICATION TIME LIMIT.—Section 8345(i)(2) of 9 title 5, United States Code, shall be applied with respect 10 to the death of an individual who performed qualifying 11 service by substituting ‘‘2 years after the effective date 12 under section 2(g) of the Air America Act of 2021’’ for 13 ‘‘30 years after the death or other event which gives rise 14 to title to the benefit’’. 15 (g) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall take effect 16 on the date that is 30 days after the date of enactment 17 of this Act. 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Mar 21, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1297.IH H1297 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS