[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 87 (Friday, June 18, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7263-S7264]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THE FEDERAL ERRONEOUS RETIREMENT COVERAGE CORRECTIONS ACT

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I am pleased to join the Senator from 
Mississippi, Mr. Cochran, in introducing S. 1232, the Federal Erroneous 
Retirement Coverage Corrections Act. This legislation provides relief 
to those federal employees who were placed in an incorrect retirement 
system during the transition to the Federal Employees Retirement System 
from the Civil Service Retirement System in the mid-1980s.
  As the ranking Democrat on the International Security, Proliferation, 
and Federal Services Subcommittee, I am committed to correcting the 
erroneous pension problems facing anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 
individuals. S. 1232 provides a reasonable solution in affording 
misclassified federal workers, former employees, retirees, and 
survivors with equitable relief from

[[Page S7264]]

these retirement coverage errors. Moreover, the measure gives those 
affected a choice between corrected retirement coverage and the 
coverage the employee expected to receive, without disturbing Social 
Security coverage law.
  Similar legislation was offered in 1998, and my colleague, the 
chairman of the Subcommittee on International Security, Proliferation, 
and Federal Services, held a hearing on the measure at which officials 
from the Office of Personnel Management and the Federal Retirement 
Thrift Investment Board testified in support of the bill.
  I believe this measure addresses the concerns of federal workers who 
have been placed in the wrong retirement system. It offers a workable 
and reasonable solution, and I ask my colleagues to support this 
legislation. I also wish to note that S. 1232 enjoys the support of the 
Office of Personnel Management and the two largest federal employee 
unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and the 
National Treasury Employees Union, that are encouraged by the 
bipartisan effort that went into crafting this bill.

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