[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4153 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4153

  To extend health insurance and survivor annuity benefits to certain 
 former spouses of Federal employees who would otherwise be ineligible 
                          for those benefits.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 24, 1996

Mrs. Morella (for herself and Mr. Jones) introduced the following bill; 
      which was referred to the Committee on Reform and Oversight

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To extend health insurance and survivor annuity benefits to certain 
 former spouses of Federal employees who would otherwise be ineligible 
                          for those benefits.

    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) 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 Civil 
        Service Retirement Spouse Equity Act of 1984 is amended by 
        striking ``May 7, 1989'' and inserting ``May 7, 1997''.
            (2) Authority to waive deadline.--Section 4(b) of the Civil 
        Service Retirement Spouse Equity Act of 1984 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 the 
Civil Service Retirement Spouse Equity Act of 1984 (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)).
                                 <all>