[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 16, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E118-E119]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       INTRODUCTION OF THE VALERIE PLAME WILSON COMPENSATION ACT

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                            HON. JAY INSLEE

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 16, 2007

  Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of 
Congress one of the human impacts caused by the indiscretion of 
government officials regarding the covert identity of Central 
Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame Wilson.
  As nearly every American knows, and as most of the world has heard, 
the covert CIA identity of Valerie Plame Wilson was exposed to the 
public as part of an Administration response to a critical op-ed 
published in the New York Times by Mrs. Plame Wilson's husband, Joe 
Wilson.
  The national security ramifications for this act have been discussed 
thoroughly on this floor, in the news media, and I am quite certain 
behind CIA's closed doors. Today I intend to call my colleagues' 
attention to the human toll that this ``outing'' has had on one, often 
overlooked, individual. That person is Valerie Plame Wilson.
  While the media, Congress, and the judiciary have gone to great 
lengths to discuss the impact of this unfortunate act on politicians, 
bureaucrats, agents in the field, and the suspected perpetrators of the 
outing, few have looked at the impact that the outing has had on Mrs. 
Plame Wilson and her family.
  On July 14, 2003, Mrs. Plame Wilson's professional life was forever 
altered, and her CIA career irrevocably ruined by the syndicated 
publication of a column, which revealed Mrs. Plame Wilson's identity as 
a covert CIA officer. Since this time, numerous reports on Mrs. Plame 
Wilson's personal history have surfaced

[[Page E119]]

in the press, official government documents, and by government 
officials.
  Following the initial outing in the media, Mrs. Plame Wilson's future 
as a covert CIA operative ceased to exist and her career of two decades 
was destroyed. On January 9, 2006, Mrs. Plame Wilson resigned from the 
CIA, recognizing that any future with the Agency would not include any 
work for which she had been highly trained. For these reasons, and 
under these distressing conditions, Mrs. Plame Wilson voluntarily 
resigned from the Agency.
  Despite Mrs. Plame Wilson's 20 years of federal service, she does not 
meet the minimum age requirement to receive her retirement annuity. She 
has been left without a career.
  I am introducing legislation to allow Mrs. Plame Wilson to qualify 
for her annuity, as one who has served her country for two decades, and 
waive the age requirement for collecting it. To best demonstrate the 
annuity for which Mrs. Plame Wilson may qualify if this legislation 
were to pass, I am submitting for the record a document sent to Mrs. 
Plame Wilson by the CIA. It outlines her deferred annuity and testifies 
to 20 years of service. The document bears no indications of classified 
material as required by CIA procedures, and was sent via regular postal 
mail after Mrs. Plame Wilson was no longer in the employ of the CIA. 
Legal experts have assured me that this is not a classified document.
  I believe that this is one small measure to help send a message that 
we must stand up for public service officers, such as Mrs. Plame 
Wilson, who have been treated wrongly despite their loyalty and 
sacrifice to country. For those who have been, for all practicable 
purposes, pushed out of public service for reasons unrelated to 
performance, but instead seeded in politics, we should not turn our 
backs.


                                  Central Intelligence Agency,

                                Washington, DC, February 10, 2006.
     Mrs. Valerie Wilson
       Dear Mrs. Wilson, This letter is in response to your recent 
     telephone conversation with regarding when you would be 
     eligible to receive your deferred annuity. Per federal 
     statute, employees participating under the Federal Employees 
     Retirement System (FERS) Special Category, who have acquired 
     a minimum of 20 years of service, are eligible to receive 
     their deferred annuity at their Minimum Retirement Age (MRA). 
     Your MRA is age 56, at which time you'll be eligible to 
     receive a deferred annuity.
       Your deferred annuity will be based on the regular FERS 
     computation rate, one percent for every year of service vice 
     the FERS Special rate of 1.7% for every year of service. You 
     will receive 1.7% for each year of overseas service, prorated 
     on a monthly basis, after January 1, 1987 in the calculation 
     of your annuity. Our records show that since January 1, 1987, 
     you have acquired 6 years, 1 month and 29 days of overseas 
     service.
       Following is a list of your federal service:
       Dates of Service: CIA, CIA (LWOP), CIA 
     (P/T 40), from 11/9/1985 to 1/9/2006--total 20 years, 7 days.
       Based on the above service and your resignation on January 
     9, 2006, your estimated deferred annuity is $21,541.00 per 
     year, or $1795 per month, beginning at age 56.
       The above figures are estimates for your planning purposes. 
     The Office of Personnel Management, as the final adjudicator 
     of creditable service and annuity computations, determines 
     final annuity amounts. Please let me know if I can be of any 
     further assistance.
           Sincerely,
     ------.

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