Norton Bill to Restore Lost Retirement Rights for DC Court Employees Approved in Committee (9/16/08)

Norton Bill to Restore Lost Retirement Rights for D.C. Court Employees Approved in Committee

September 16, 2008

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's bill to correct a long overdue oversight resulting in retirement losses for federal employees who worked for a number of District agencies before the 1997 Balanced Budget Reconciliation Act transferred authority of their agencies to federal government, making them federal employees, today passed out of the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and District of Columbia.

The "District of Columbia Court, Offender Supervision, Parole, and Public Defender Employees Equity Act of 2008," will restore "creditable service" time to workers whose retirement dates were unintentionally altered when they were transferred to federal jurisdiction. Norton introduced the bill, H.R. 5600, with Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) in March affecting hundreds of workers who became federal employees in 1997 when their agencies were taken under federal jurisdiction. Some of these employees lost years towards their retirement that were accumulated when they were D.C. employees. Norton's bill allows time served by these employees before 1997 to count towards their overall retirement eligibility.