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PIT Buyback Legislation Finally Implemented
By Mette Beecroft, AAFSW President Emerita
On September 7, 2005, the Director General announced that Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently published the implementing regulations for "1989-1998 PIT (Part-time, Intermittent, and Temporary) Service Buyback" provisions passed into law in 2002 as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of FY03. According to the Department notice, current and former eligible employees can now purchase retirement credit under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) for service performed as an eligible family member (EFM) on temporary appointments at U.S. missions abroad during the period January 1, 1989 to May 23, 1998 . For further information and guidance on this very important benefit to family members who worked under a PIT Appointment see:
Advocacy and obstacles
The PIT Buyback addresses an anomaly in the law that did not allow spouses who worked as PITs during this nine-year period to obtain retirement benefits. Prior to January 1, 1989 and after May 24, 1998 -when the Family Member Appointments program (FMA) took effect after an enormous effort by the FLO-spouses could pay in for retirement benefits. Thus it was during this middle period that spouses found themselves "disenfranchised," just when larger numbers of spouses were starting to work and had more to lose in the way of retirement benefits.
In 1999, AAFSW printed in the Global Link a questionnaire asking who had worked in PITs during the 1989-98 period. From that questionnaire and other research, we discovered about 200 AAFSW members fell into this group. Some spouses had the equivalent of seven or eight years if they pieced together their various employment experiences. We also discovered that there were about 30 people working in the State Department who had no retirement benefits from that period.
Those of us in the State Department met at lunch, and with the help of Ken Nakamura, Director of Legislative Affairs for AFSA (American Foreign Service Association), identified what we needed to do and whom we needed to see. We took annual leave to go to the Hill to lobby, and sent letters from our homes so as not to use USG time and resources. Through lobbying, we were able to make the point that this was not only an issue of fairness (treating all PITs the same) but also a constituent issue since many congressmen had members of the Foreign Service in their districts. Also included in the lobbying effort were explanations with which to counter the erroneous reasoning of OPM.
Even if many of our local congressmen supported us, we are especially indebted to Congressman Jim Moran who introduced the legislation that became the PIT provisions in the Foreign Relations Act of 2003. As Ken Nakamura wrote, "It was through his office and his staff people, especially Jennifer Park, that we were able to get the entire 'DC delegation' (those who have constituents in the DC-MD-VA area) to cosponsor the legislation."
When the provision authorizing the PIT Buyback finally became law in September of 2002, the Administration indicated that it opposed the PIT provisions and would seek to repeal them. The one thing that was lacking in the provision was a date limiting how long OPM might take before they produced implementation regulations. Finally, after three years, OPM published regulations in the Federal Register on August 29, 2005 .
Thank you, thank you
Many people played a crucial role in bringing the Pit Buyback legislation to fruition. Since the Administration opposed the PIT Buyback provision, the Department of State-the Family Liaison Office included-could not endorse it. The Department, however, provided crucial assistance as they explained the issues to Congress and continued to pressure the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and OPM. In FLO, Faye Barnes, Judy Ikels, and Katie Hokenson were unfailingly supportive with their interest and expertise. More recently, Retirement, headed by David Dlouhy, has assumed the major task of collecting and analyzing the data provided by former PITS to determine how much retirement credit they might be able to buy back.
There is no way to exaggerate the importance of the role played by Ken Nakamura. He knows the Hill extremely well and showed enormous patience, tenacity, and good will in
keeping us informed as to where things stood and in guiding us on whom to contact and whom to visit. The two past AFSA presidents, John Naland and John Limbert, also offered their steadfast support.
Echoing AAFSW's gratitude is Ken Nakamura, who added his thanks on behalf of AFSA in his September 20, 2005 AFSANET Legislative Update email:
"In many respects, this is a small issue that should not have taken this long-but it did..There were many people involved in getting this program off-the-ground and running. All of our DC area Representatives in the House and Senate played important roles in getting the legislation passed. A special thanks to Congressman Jim Moran (D-8 VA), who introduced and supported the initial legislation that became the PIT provision in the 03 Foreign Relations Act. Senator George Allen (R-VA) was his counterpart on the Senate side. We also need to thank the Chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, Congressman Henry Hyde (R-6 IL), and the Committee's Ranking Member, Congressman Tom Lantos (D-12 CA) on the House side. On the Senate side, the Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Richard Lugar (R-IN) and the Committee's Ranking Member, Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) should likewise be thanked for their help. It was their bills that carried the provision into law, and when we were having trouble getting OPM to issue the implementing regulations, both the House and the Senate Committees' reactions proved the Congress' support for this program. By adding a provision in 2003, 2004, and 2005 to the State authorization bills instructing OPM to issue implementing regulations within 60 days after enactment, Congress showed that they really did want this program to happen. While the Congress was unable to pass the State authorization bill in those years, the repetition of this provision certainly underlined the intent of Congress.
State Department management also needs to be thanked. The Department's help was crucial with its forthright answers to Congressional inquiries related to the issue. After the provision became law, the Department was persistent in its pursuit of getting the implementing regulations out of OPM and OMB.
Finally, organizations like the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide (AAFSW) and those individuals who previously worked as PITs played an important role in getting to where we are today. They made the contacts with their Representatives and Senators and explained what the issues were, and why OPM, in its arguments against the provision, was wrong. They helped show that beyond issues of fairness, it was also a constituent matter. The important thing is that they were always ready to go back and talk to their elected officials if further discussion was required."
AAFSW is very pleased to see the PIT Buyback finally coming to be. It has been a long, drawn-out process, and after seven years of fighting for what is right and fair, we are in the homestretch.