Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Nikki Budzinski (D-IL), David Valadao (R-CA), and Don Bacon (R-NE) introduced the Federal Retirement Fairness Act (H.R. 1522). This bipartisan bill would allow certain federal employees, including letter carriers, to make catch-up retirement contributions for time spent as non-career employees after Dec. 31, 1988, making it credible service under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS).
Over 65 percent of current letter carriers began their USPS careers as casuals, transitional employees (TEs) or city carrier assistants (CCAs), all of which are non-career positions. More than 132,000 letter carriers who started in non-career positions, in most cases doing the exact same work as career employees, have time currently not credible towards their retirement. H.R. 1522 would allow these affected letter carriers the opportunity to purchase retirement credit for the time they spent in these non-career positions, providing greater retirement security.
The bill was introduced with 24 bipartisan co-sponsors and is identical to the version introduced last Congress, which had 131 bipartisan co-sponsors.
“NALC appreciates Chairman Connolly, Rep. Budzinski, Rep. Valadao, and Rep Bacon’s leadership on this bill that would benefit so many of our members,” NALC President Brian L. Renfroe said. “This bill is about fairness for public servants. Letter carriers put in the hours and the hard work, and it’s only fair that their time spent in non-career positions count towards their well-deserved retirements. NALC urges the House to pass this bill.”
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