Sponsor
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Representative · D-DC
Representative · D-DC
The bill restores and clarifies retroactive survivor and CSRS credit benefits for eligible D.C. service—improving retirement security for affected employees and survivors—while imposing upfront deposit costs on employees and creating modest additional fiscal and administrative burdens for the government and taxpayers.
Surviving spouses and registered domestic partners: regain or retain entitlement to federal survivor retirement benefits because the bill treats certain D.C. domestic-partnership amendments as if they predated the federal freeze date, and preserves remarriage protection for those who remarried after age 55 or who were married at least 30 years — extending parity to judicial survivors.
Federal employees with qualifying D.C. service (and their families): can have that service counted toward CSRS benefits if they (or survivors on their behalf) make the required deposit, increasing retirement annuities and helping preserve survivor annuities.
Taxpayers and the retirement system: deposits collected under the bill are credited to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, meaning the payments go directly to fund benefit liabilities rather than shifting costs elsewhere.
Taxpayers and the federal retirement system: could face increased long-term retirement payouts and liabilities because more survivors qualify retroactively and expanded creditable service increases payable benefits.
Federal employees (especially lower-income workers): must pay a lump-sum deposit (based on prior basic pay plus interest) to get credit for D.C. service, an upfront cost that may be unaffordable for some and could deter take-up.
Younger survivors (those who remarried before age 55 and without a 30-year marriage): may lose protections and see reduced survivor benefits because the remarriage exception does not extend to them.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Makes certain D.C. domestic-partner and remarriage rules retroactive for survivor benefits and authorizes deposits so qualifying D.C. service can be counted for CSRS benefit computations.
Official title: To amend the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997 to treat domestic partnerships as marriage for purposes of the program of benefits paid by the Federal Government for survivors of a District of Columbia police officer, firefighter, or teacher in the same manner and to the same extent that domestic partnerships are treated as marriage for purposes of such benefits which are paid by the District of Columbia, to conform the age limit after which a surviving spouse of a police officer, firefighter, or teacher may remarry without losing survivor benefits under such program to the age limit established with respect to survivor benefits of Federal employees, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 13, 2026 by Eleanor Holmes Norton · Last progress July 13, 2026
Makes technical corrections to District of Columbia retirement law so certain domestic-partner and remarriage rules apply as if they were in effect before the federal “freeze date,” and lets people buy service credit for qualifying D.C. service so that service counts for federal Civil Service Retirement benefits. It also updates cross-references and directs the Office of Personnel Management to issue implementing regulations for deposit procedures.