[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 290 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 290

  To extend health insurance and survivor annuity benefits to certain 
former spouses of Federal employees who would not otherwise be eligible 
                               therefor.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 5, 1993

 Mrs. Morella introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
               Committee on Post Office and Civil Service

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To extend health insurance and survivor annuity benefits to certain 
former spouses of Federal employees who would not otherwise be eligible 
                               therefor.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. AMENDMENTS TO THE CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENT SPOUSE EQUITY ACT 
              OF 1984.

    (a) Elimination of Bars to Eligibility.--Section 4(b) of the Civil 
Service Retirement Spouse Equity Act of 1984 (5 U.S.C. 8341 note), 
hereinafter in this Act referred to as the ``Spouse Equity Act'', is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1)(B)(i), by striking ``after September 
        14, 1978, and''; and
            (2) by striking paragraph (4).
    (b) New Deadline for Applications.--
            (1) In general.--Section 4(b)(1)(B)(iv) of the Spouse 
        Equity Act is amended by striking ``May 7, 1989'' and inserting 
        ``May 7, 1993''.
            (2) Authority to waive deadline.--Section 4(b) of the 
        Spouse Equity Act is amended by adding at the end the 
        following:
    ``(6)(A) The Director of the Office of Personnel Management may 
waive the deadline under paragraph (1)(B)(iv) in any case in which the 
Director determines that the circumstances so warrant.
    ``(B) In making a determination under this paragraph, one of the 
factors which may be taken into account is whether the individual 
involved has previously submitted a timely application under this 
section--
            ``(i) which was denied; but
            ``(ii) which, based on criteria applied under this section 
        pursuant to changes in law subsequent to the denial, would have 
        been approved.''.

SEC. 2. HEALTH BENEFITS.

    Any individual who, under the provisions of section 4(b) of the 
Spouse Equity Act (as amended by section 1), is entitled to a survivor 
annuity described in such provisions may, within 12 months after the 
date on which such individual first becomes so entitled (or the date of 
the enactment of this Act, if later), and if such individual meets the 
definition of a former spouse under section 8901(10) of title 5, United 
States Code (determined without regard to subparagraph (C) thereof), 
enroll in an approved health benefits plan described in section 8903 of 
such title, under the conditions set forth in section 8905(c) of such 
title (excluding subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (1) of such 
section 8905(c)).

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