I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8538 To allow certain governmental pension plans to include firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 6, 2020 Mr. HOLDING (for himself, Mr. MCHENRY, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. MURPHY of North Carolina, Ms. FOXX of North Carolina, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. WALKER, Mr. ROUZER, Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina, Mr. HUDSON, and Mr. BUDD) introduced the following bill; which was re- ferred to the Committee on Ways and Means A BILL To allow certain governmental pension plans to include fire- fighters, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8538.IH H8538 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8538 IH SECTION 1. GOVERNMENTAL PENSION PLANS MAY IN- 1 CLUDE CERTAIN FIREFIGHTERS, EMER- 2 GENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS, AND PARA- 3 MEDICS. 4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (d) of section 414 of 5 the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to govern- 6 mental plans) is amended to read as follows: 7 ‘‘(d) GOVERNMENTAL PLAN.— 8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this part, 9 the term ‘governmental plan’ means— 10 ‘‘(A) a plan established and maintained for 11 its employees by the Government of the United 12 States, by the government of any State or polit- 13 ical subdivision thereof, or by any agency or in- 14 strumentality of any of the foregoing, 15 ‘‘(B) any plan to which the Railroad Re- 16 tirement Act of 1935 or 1937 applies and which 17 is financed by contributions required under that 18 Act, 19 ‘‘(C) any plan of an international organiza- 20 tion which is exempt from taxation by reason of 21 the International Organizations Immunities Act 22 (59 Stat. 669), or 23 ‘‘(D) a plan which is established and main- 24 tained by an Indian tribal government (as de- 25 fined in section 7701(a)(40)), a subdivision of 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8538.IH H8538 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8538 IH an Indian tribal government (determined in ac- 1 cordance with section 7871(d)), or an agency or 2 instrumentality of either, and all of the partici- 3 pants of which are employees of such entity 4 substantially all of whose services as such an 5 employee are in the performance of essential 6 governmental functions but not in the perform- 7 ance of commercial activities (whether or not an 8 essential government function). 9 ‘‘(2) SPECIAL RULE FOR EMERGENCY RE- 10 SPONSE PROVIDERS.—For purposes of paragraph 11 (1), a public safety agency (described in section 12 501(c) and exempt from taxation under section 13 501(a)) that employs emergency response providers 14 (defined in section 2 of the Homeland Security Act 15 of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101)), substantially all of whose 16 services as emergency response providers are in the 17 performance of firefighting services or out-of-hos- 18 pital emergency medical services for a political sub- 19 division of a State under a contract between such 20 public safety agency and the political subdivision of 21 a State, may opt to join the governmental plan of 22 such State or political subdivision.’’. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8538.IH H8538 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8538 IH (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 1 this section shall apply to plan years beginning after the 2 date of the enactment of this Act. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8538.IH H8538 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS