Retirement Annuity Supplement Clarity Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4977 To amend title 5, United States Code, to require that a court decree, court order, or other similar process expressly provides for an annuity supple- ment payment. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES DECEMBER 8, 2020 Mr. LANKFORD (for himself and Ms. SINEMA) 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 require that a court decree, court order, or other similar process ex- pressly provides for an annuity supplement payment. 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 ‘‘Retirement Annuity 4 Supplement Clarity Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. COURT ORDERS. 6 (a) COURT ORDERS.—Section 8467 of title 5, United 7 States Code, is amended— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:03 Dec 12, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4977.IS S4977 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4977 IS (1) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub- 1 section (d); and 2 (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol- 3 lowing: 4 ‘‘(c) If a court decree, court order, or agreement de- 5 scribed in paragraph (1) of subsection (a) expressly di- 6 vides an annuity under subchapter II, an annuity supple- 7 ment payment made under section 8421 shall be included 8 in the computation of that division, unless the court de- 9 cree, court order, or agreement expressly excludes division 10 of the annuity supplement.’’. 11 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 12 Section 8241 of title 5, United States Code, is amended 13 by striking subsection (c). 14 (c) APPLICABILITY.— 15 (1) IN GENERAL.—The amendment made by 16 subsection (a) shall apply to all annuity supplement 17 payments under section 8421 of title 5, United 18 States Code, that begin on, or after the date of en- 19 actment of this Act. 20 (2) RETROACTIVE PAYMENTS.— 21 (A) DEFINITION.—In this paragraph: 22 (i) ANNUITY SUPPLEMENT.—The 23 term ‘‘annuity supplement’’ means an an- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:03 Dec 12, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4977.IS S4977 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4977 IS nuity supplement under section 8241 of 1 title 5, United States Code. 2 (ii) COVERED ANNUITANT.—The term 3 ‘‘covered annuitant’’ means any annu- 4 itant— 5 (I) who was retired on or before 6 the date of enactment of this Act; 7 (II) who is or was entitled to an 8 annuity supplement; 9 (III) whose annuity was subject 10 to a court order described in section 11 8467(a)(1) that was silent regarding 12 the annuity supplement or that in- 13 cluded language that expressly ex- 14 cluded the annuity supplement from 15 division; and 16 (IV) whose annuity supplement 17 was recomputed by the Office of Per- 18 sonnel Management during the period 19 beginning on June 30, 2016, and end- 20 ing on the date of enactment of this 21 Act to retroactively include the annu- 22 ity supplement in the division of the 23 annuity. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:03 Dec 12, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4977.IS S4977 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4977 IS (B) PAYMENT.—The Office of Personnel 1 Management shall pay a one-time payment 2 from the Civil Service Retirement and Dis- 3 ability Fund established under section 8348 of 4 title 5, United States Code, to a covered annu- 5 itant who received an annuity supplement under 6 section 8421 of title 5, United States Code, be- 7 fore the date of enactment of this Act an 8 amount (without interest) equal to the amount 9 deducted from the annuity of the covered annu- 10 itant as a result of including the annuity sup- 11 plement in the computation of a court-ordered 12 division or other scenario described in subpara- 13 graph (A)(ii)(III)(bb). 14 (3) NO REPAYMENT.—Overpayments paid to a 15 covered annuitant, or any overpayments of appor- 16 tionment paid to a former spouse of a covered annu- 17 itant (as the case may be), before the date of enact- 18 ment of this Act, which resulted from excluding the 19 covered annuitant’s annuity supplement in the com- 20 putation of a court-ordered apportionment, shall be 21 waived. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:03 Dec 12, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4977.IS S4977 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS