Law Enforcement Officers Equity Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 473 To amend title 5, United States Code, to include certain Federal positions within the definition of law enforcement officer for retirement purposes, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 13, 2019 Mr. BOOKER (for himself and Mr. PORTMAN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu- rity and Governmental Affairs A BILL To amend title 5, United States Code, to include certain Federal positions within the definition of law enforce- ment officer for retirement purposes, and for other pur- poses. 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 ‘‘Law Enforcement Offi- 4 cers Equity Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:49 Feb 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S473.IS S473 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 473 IS SEC. 2. INCLUDING CERTAIN POSITIONS WITHIN THE DEFI- 1 NITION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER 2 FOR PURPOSES OF RETIREMENT. 3 (a) FEDERAL EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM.— 4 Section 8401(17) of title 5, United States Code, is amend- 5 ed— 6 (1) in subparagraph (C)— 7 (A) by striking ‘‘subparagraph (A) and 8 (B)’’ and inserting ‘‘subparagraphs (A), (B), 9 (E), (F), (G), (H), and (I)’’; and 10 (B) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; and 11 (2) by adding at the end the following: 12 ‘‘(E) an employee not otherwise covered by 13 this paragraph— 14 ‘‘(i) the duties of whose position in- 15 clude the investigation or apprehension of 16 individuals suspected or convicted of of- 17 fenses against the criminal laws of the 18 United States; and 19 ‘‘(ii) who is authorized to carry a fire- 20 arm; 21 ‘‘(F) an employee of the Internal Revenue 22 Service, the duties of whose position are pri- 23 marily the— 24 ‘‘(i) collection of delinquent taxes; and 25 ‘‘(ii) securing of delinquent returns; 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:49 Feb 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S473.IS S473 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 473 IS ‘‘(G) an employee of the United States 1 Postal Inspection Service; 2 ‘‘(H) an employee of the Department of 3 Veterans Affairs who is a Department police of- 4 ficer under section 902 of title 38; and 5 ‘‘(I) an employee of U.S. Customs and 6 Border Protection— 7 ‘‘(i) who is a seized property specialist 8 in the GS–1801 job series; and 9 ‘‘(ii) the duties of whose position in- 10 clude activities relating to the efficient and 11 effective custody, management, and dis- 12 position of seized and forfeited property;’’. 13 (b) CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENT SYSTEM.—Section 14 8331(20) of title 5, United States Code, is amended, in 15 the matter preceding subparagraph (A)— 16 (1) by inserting ‘‘and an individual described in 17 any of subparagraphs (E) through (I) of section 18 8401(17)’’ after ‘‘United States’’; and 19 (2) by striking ‘‘this activity’’ and inserting 20 ‘‘such activity or described in any such subpara- 21 graph’’. 22 (c) APPLICATION.—The amendments made by this 23 section shall apply to any— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:49 Feb 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S473.IS S473 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 473 IS (1) individual who is appointed as a law en- 1 forcement officer— 2 (A) as defined in section 8331(20) or 3 8401(17) of title 5, United States Code (as 4 amended by this section); and 5 (B) on or after the date of enactment of 6 this Act; and 7 (2) incumbent (as defined in section 3(a)(4)), 8 consistent with the requirements of section 3. 9 SEC. 3. INCUMBENT LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS. 10 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 11 (1) the term ‘‘Director’’ means the Director of 12 the Office of Personnel Management; 13 (2) the term ‘‘employee’’ has the meaning given 14 the term in section 8331(1) or 8401(11) of title 5, 15 United States Code; 16 (3) the term ‘‘Fund’’ means the Civil Service 17 Retirement and Disability Fund; 18 (4) the term ‘‘incumbent’’ means an individual 19 who— 20 (A) before the date of enactment of this 21 Act, was appointed to a position as an employee 22 that— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:49 Feb 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S473.IS S473 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 473 IS (i) did not satisfy the requirements of 1 section 8331(20) or 8401(17) of title 5, 2 United States Code, as then in effect; and 3 (ii) would have satisfied the require- 4 ments described in clause (i) if the amend- 5 ments made by section 2 had been in ef- 6 fect; and 7 (B) on the date of enactment of this Act, 8 is serving in a position as an employee that sat- 9 isfies the requirements of section 8331(20) of 10 title 5, United States Code, by virtue of the 11 amendments made by section 2; 12 (5) the term ‘‘law enforcement officer’’ has the 13 meaning given the term in section 8331(20) or 14 8401(17) of title 5, United States Code, as amended 15 by section 2; 16 (6) the term ‘‘prior service’’ means, with re- 17 spect to an incumbent who makes an election under 18 subsection (b)(2), service performed by the incum- 19 bent before the date on which appropriate retirement 20 deductions begin to be made under the election; and 21 (7) the term ‘‘service’’ means service performed 22 by an individual in a position that— 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:49 Feb 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S473.IS S473 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 473 IS (A) satisfies the requirements of section 1 8331(20) or 8401(17) of title 5, United States 2 Code, as amended by section 2; or 3 (B) would have satisfied the requirements 4 of section 8331(20) or 8401(17) of title 5, 5 United States Code, as amended by section 2, 6 if the amendments made by section 2 had then 7 been in effect. 8 (b) TREATMENT OF SERVICE PERFORMED BY IN- 9 CUMBENTS.— 10 (1) SERVICE ON OR AFTER DATE OF ENACT- 11 MENT.—Service performed by an incumbent on or 12 after the date of enactment of this Act shall be 13 treated as service performed as a law enforcement 14 officer. 15 (2) SERVICE BEFORE DATE OF ENACTMENT.— 16 Service performed by an incumbent before the date 17 of enactment of this Act shall, for purposes of sub- 18 chapter III of chapter 83 and chapter 84 of title 5, 19 United States Code, be treated as service performed 20 as a law enforcement officer only if the incumbent 21 submits a written election to the Director by the ear- 22 lier of— 23 (A) the date that is 5 years after the date 24 of enactment of this Act; or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:49 Feb 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S473.IS S473 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •S 473 IS (B) the day before the date on which the 1 incumbent separates from the service. 2 (c) INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS FOR PRIOR SERV- 3 ICE.— 4 (1) IN GENERAL.—An incumbent who makes an 5 election under subsection (b)(2) may, with respect to 6 prior service performed by the incumbent, pay a de- 7 posit into the Fund equal to the sum of— 8 (A) the difference between— 9 (i) the amount that would have been 10 deducted during the period of prior service 11 under section 8334 or 8422 of title 5, 12 United States Code, from the pay of the 13 incumbent if the amendments made by sec- 14 tion 2 had been in effect during the prior 15 service; and 16 (ii) the amount that was deducted 17 during the period of prior service under 18 section 8334 or 8422 of title 5, United 19 States Code; and 20 (B) interest on the amount described in 21 subparagraph (A)(i), as computed under— 22 (i) paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 23 8334(e) of title 5, United States Code; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:49 Feb 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S473.IS S473 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •S 473 IS (ii) regulations promulgated by the 1 Director. 2 (2) EFFECT OF NOT CONTRIBUTING.—If an in- 3 cumbent does not pay the full amount of the deposit 4 described in paragraph (1)— 5 (A) all prior service of the incumbent shall 6 remain fully creditable as a law enforcement of- 7 ficer; and 8 (B) the resulting annuity shall be re- 9 duced— 10 (i) in a manner similar to that de- 11 scribed in section 8334(d)(2) of title 5, 12 United States Code; and 13 (ii) to the extent necessary to make 14 up the amount unpaid. 15 (d) GOVERNMENT CONTRIBUTIONS FOR PRIOR SERV- 16 ICE.— 17 (1) IN GENERAL.—If an incumbent makes an 18 election under subsection (b)(2), an agency that em- 19 ployed the incumbent during any prior service of the 20 incumbent shall remit to the Director, for deposit in 21 the Fund, an amount equal to the sum of— 22 (A) the difference between— 23 (i) the total amount of Government 24 contributions that would have been paid 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:49 Feb 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S473.IS S473 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 9 •S 473 IS under section 8334 or 8423 of title 5, 1 United States Code, if the amendments 2 made by section 2 had been in effect dur- 3 ing the prior service; and 4 (ii) the total amount of Government 5 contributions paid under section 8334 or 6 8423 of title 5, United States Code; and 7 (B) interest on the amount described in 8 subparagraph (A)(i), as computed in accordance 9 with— 10 (i) paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 11 8334(e) of title 5, United States Code; and 12 (ii) regulations promulgated by the 13 Director. 14 (2) CONTRIBUTIONS TO BE MADE RATABLY.— 15 Government contributions under this subsection on 16 behalf of an incumbent shall be made by the agency 17 ratably (not less frequently than annually) over the 18 10-year period beginning on the date described in 19 subsection (a)(6). 20 (e) EXEMPTION FROM MANDATORY SEPARATION.— 21 Notwithstanding section 8335(b) or 8425(b) of title 5, 22 United States Code, a law enforcement officer shall not 23 be subject to mandatory separation during the 3-year pe- 24 riod beginning on the date of enactment of this Act. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:49 Feb 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S473.IS S473 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 10 •S 473 IS (f) REGULATIONS.—The Director shall prescribe reg- 1 ulations to carry out this Act, including regulations for 2 the application of this section in the case of any individual 3 entitled to a survivor annuity (based on the service of an 4 incumbent who dies before making an election under sub- 5 section (b)(2)), to the extent of any rights that would have 6 been available to the decedent if still living. 7 (g) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec- 8 tion shall be considered to apply in the case of a reem- 9 ployed annuitant. 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:49 Feb 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S473.IS S473 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS