Norton Files Bill to Upgrade DC Police and Fire Pensions (5/21/07)
Norton Files Bill to Upgrade DC Police and Fire Pensions
May 21, 2007
Washington, DC-At a ceremony kicking off EMS Week, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said she was introducing today the Metropolitan Police and Fire Department Act of 2007 to reduce the minimum number of years D.C. police and firefighters are required to serve in order to get their fair share of long term annuity benefits due from the federal government. Federal law divides the responsibility for paying the District's first responders between the federal government and the city. Norton's bill is necessary to conform the federal formula for calculating pensions, under which officers and firefighters must serve a minimum of 25 years, to the new 20 year threshold adopted by the District government earlier this year.
Washington, DC-At a ceremony kicking off EMS Week, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said she was introducing today theMetropolitan Police and Fire Department Act of 2007 to reduce the minimum number of years D.C. police and firefighters are required to serve in order to get their fair share of long term annuity benefits due from the federal government. Federal law divides the responsibility for paying the District's first responders between the federal government and the city. Norton's bill is necessary to conform the federal formula for calculating pensions, under which officers and firefighters must serve a minimum of 25 years, to the new 20 year threshold adopted by the District government earlier this year.In 1999 the D.C. City Council set the minimum to 20 years of service, but later increased it to 25 years at the request of then Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey. He was concerned that hundreds of longtime police officers who were eligible to retire at 20 years might leave in droves, draining the department of too many experienced officers. Now that the timeframe for these retirees has passed and the District has reset the eligibility to 20 years, Norton's bill would bring the federal government in line, at the request of the first responders union.
Norton's bill is consistent with what happened in 2000. At that time, the District first changed the retirement plan for Metropolitan Police Department to permit service longevity payments to be considered part of the basic compensation used to calculate the retirement annuities. Congress then followed suit in 2001 by making the adjustment in the federal government's share of the payments, covering service prior to July 1997.
"Precedent calls for a congressional adjustment in pensions for these officers and firefighters, who have served long and hard to get what is due to them," Norton said. "The challenges first responders face and their added burdens since 9/11 only add to the obligation to give these dedicated men and women all that they have earned for their important routine and special duties for serving and protecting the federal enclave, D.C. residents and visitors to the nation's capital."