Legislation has recently been introduced in the House of Representatives that would make any federal employees convicted of child sexual abuse ineligible for federal pensions.
The bill is companion legislation to a bill that was introduced in the Senate earlier this year. Both bills have been introduced in response to news reports that Dr. Stanley Patrick Weber, a former pediatrician with the Indian Health Service, was convicted to 18 years in federal prison this year for molesting children while he worked at the agency dating back to the 1990s. Since he will continue receiving an approximately $100,000 per year pension while in prison, he could end up with nearly $2 million during his 18 year sentence.
The House bill, which is known as the No Pensions for Pedophiles Act (H.R. 3816), has been introduced by Congressman Ross Spano (R-FL).
Spano said in a statement:
I was deeply disturbed to read news reports earlier this year surrounding the conviction of Stanley Patrick Weber. He was a doctor at Indian Health Service hospitals who misused his position of trust and responsibility to sexually prey on vulnerable young boys. The reports highlighted his conviction for abusing two boys on a reservation in Montana, and he is now awaiting trial in a second similar case. I do not believe taxpayers should be forced to fund the pensions of federal employees who have been convicted of crimes related to the sexual abuse of innocent children who will carry the trauma and scars of his harmful behavior for the rest of their lives.
Under current law, being convicted of treason or espionage against the United States will bar an individual from receiving a pension, but otherwise one could continue to receive a pension, even in prison.