[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1688 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1688

To amend the provisions of title 5, United States Code, relating to the 
    methodology for calculating the amount of any Postal surplus or 
 supplemental liability under the Civil Service Retirement System, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 12, 2011

 Ms. Mikulski introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the provisions of title 5, United States Code, relating to the 
    methodology for calculating the amount of any Postal surplus or 
 supplemental liability under the Civil Service Retirement System, and 
                          for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Save Our Postal Worker Jobs Act of 
2011''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Inspector General of the United States Postal 
        Service has reported that--
                    (A) the Postal Service has overpaid into the Civil 
                Service Retirement System by as much as 
                $75,000,000,000; and
                    (B) the Postal Service has overpaid into the 
                Federal Employees' Retirement System by as much as 
                $6,800,000,000.
            (2) The Postal Service announced that it may have lost as 
        much as $10,000,000,000 in fiscal year 2011.
            (3) The Postal Service has proposed reducing the number of 
        employees of the Postal Service by more than 200,000 through 
        attrition and layoffs.

SEC. 3. MODIFIED METHODOLOGY.

    (a) In General.--Section 8348(h) of title 5, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(4)(A) To the extent that a determination under paragraph (1), 
relating to benefits attributable to civilian employment with the 
United States Postal Service, is based on any provision of law 
described in subparagraph (C), such determination shall be made in 
accordance with such provision and any otherwise applicable provisions 
of law, subject to the following:
            ``(i) The `average pay' used in the case of any individual 
        shall be a single amount, determined in accordance with section 
        8331(4), taking into account the rates of basic pay in effect 
        for such individual during the periods of creditable service 
        performed by such individual. Nothing in this subsection shall 
        be considered to permit or require--
                    ``(I) one determination of average pay with respect 
                to service performed with the United States Postal 
                Service; and
                    ``(II) a separate determination of average pay with 
                respect to service performed with its predecessor 
                entity in function.
            ``(ii) In determining the portion of an annuity 
        attributable to civilian employment with the United States 
        Postal Service, with respect to any period of employment with 
        the United States Postal Service that follows any other period 
        of employment creditable under section 8332 (without regard to 
        whether such employment was with an entity referred to in 
        clause (i)(II)), the total service of an employee for purposes 
        of any provision of law described in subparagraph (C) shall be 
        the sum of--
                    ``(I) any period of employment with the United 
                States Postal Service; and
                    ``(II) any period of employment creditable under 
                section 8332 that precedes the period described in 
                subclause (I).
    ``(B)(i) Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of 
this paragraph, the Office shall determine (or, if applicable, 
redetermine) the amount of the Postal surplus or supplemental liability 
as of the close of the fiscal year most recently ending before such 
date of enactment, in conformance with the methodology required under 
subparagraph (A).
    ``(ii)(I) If the result of the determination or redetermination 
under clause (i) is a surplus, the Office shall transfer the amount of 
such surplus to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund not 
later than 15 days after the date of such determination or 
redetermination.
    ``(II) If a determination or redetermination under clause (i) for a 
fiscal year is made before the Office makes a redetermination under 
paragraph (2)(B) with respect to the fiscal year, the Office may not 
make a determination under paragraph (2)(B) with respect to the fiscal 
year.
    ``(C) The provisions of law described in this subparagraph are--
            ``(i) the first sentence of section 8339(a); and
            ``(ii) section 8339(d)(1).
    ``(5) For purposes of this subsection--
            ``(A) the term `Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits 
        Fund' means the fund established under section 8909a; and
            ``(B) the term `Postal Service Fund' means the fund 
        established under section 2003 of title 39.''.
    (b) Coordination Provisions.--
            (1) Amendment.--Section 8909a of title 5, United States 
        Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the amount 
payable by the Postal Service under subsection (d) in any fiscal year 
ending on or before September 30, 2021, shall be determined without 
regard to the requirements under section 8348(h)(4).''.
            (2) Rule of construction.--Nothing in this Act, or an 
        amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to affect the 
        amount of any benefits otherwise payable from the Civil Service 
        Retirement and Disability Fund to any individual.
    (c) Technical Amendment.--The heading for section 8909a of title 5, 
United States Code, is amended by striking ``Benefit'' and inserting 
``Benefits''.

SEC. 4. ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS.

    (a) In General.--Section 8348(h)(2) of title 5, United States Code, 
is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(F) Notwithstanding any other provision of this subsection, for 
purposes of determining the Postal surplus or supplemental liability 
for each of fiscal years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020--
            ``(i) paragraph (4)(A) shall not apply to a determination 
        under paragraph (1); and
            ``(ii) the determination under paragraph (1) shall be made 
        by applying the methodology that was used to carry out this 
        paragraph with respect to the fiscal year preceding the fiscal 
        year referred to in paragraph (4)(B)(i).''.
    (b) Relating to a Postal Surplus.--Section 8348(h)(2)(C) of title 
5, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by inserting ``2021,'' after ``2015,''; and
            (2) by striking ``if the result is'' and all that follows 
        through ``terminated.'' and inserting the following: ``if the 
        result is a surplus--
            ``(i) that amount shall be transferred--
                    ``(I) to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits 
                Fund, if the surplus is for fiscal year 2020 or a 
                preceding fiscal year; and
                    ``(II) to the Postal Service Fund, if the surplus 
                is for fiscal year 2021 or a subsequent fiscal year; 
                and
            ``(ii) any prior amortization schedule for payments shall 
        be terminated.''.

SEC. 5. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN SURPLUS RETIREMENT CONTRIBUTIONS.

    Section 8423(b) of title 5, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraph (5) as paragraph (6); and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (4) the following:
    ``(5) If, for fiscal year 2010, the amount computed under paragraph 
(1)(B) is less than zero (in this section referred to as `surplus 
postal contributions'), the amount of such surplus postal contributions 
shall be transferred--
            ``(A) to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund to 
        pay any liability to the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits 
        Fund for fiscal year 2011;
            ``(B) if all liability to the Postal Service Retiree Health 
        Benefits Fund for fiscal year 2011 has been paid, to the 
        Employees' Compensation Fund established under section 8147; 
        and
            ``(C) if all liability of the United States Postal Service 
        to the Employees' Compensation Fund has been paid, to the 
        United States Postal Service for the repayment of any 
        obligation issued under section 2005 of title 39.''.

SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    (a) In General.--This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall 
take effect on the date of enactment of this Act.
    (b) Intent of Congress.--It is the intent of Congress that this Act 
apply with respect to the allocation of past, present, and future 
benefit liabilities between the United States Postal Service and the 
Treasury of the United States.
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