Congressman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) has introduced legislation (H.R. 1230) that would change the pension benefit formula for federal employees to use the highest five years of earnings to calculate civil service pension benefits.
“This bill would simply change the formula for determining pension benefits for civilian federal employees from the best-earning three years to the best-earning five years of service,” said Westerman. “The bill ensures that the program employees of the federal government have paid into for their careers is available in retirement and sustainable for future generations.”
It is estimated that the change would save taxpayers a total of $3.1 billion over 10 years. The change would go into effect on January 1, 2017.
As a part of the proposal, all federal civilian employees – including Members of Congress and their staffs – would be impacted by the change. The only exemption to the proposed legislative action are active duty and retired military personnel.
