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Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) last month reintroduced legislation which would increase cost of living adjustments (COLA) for some retired federal employees.
If passed, Equal COLA Act (H.R. 304) would guarantee that federal retirees in the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) both receive the same annual percentage cost of living increase each year. The legislation would tie both federal retirement system COLAs annual increase to the CPI-W.
Connolly last reintroduced the bill in 2019.
How is the difference between the CSRS COLA and FERS COLA determined?
Under current law, the following table summarizes the FERS COLA in relation to the CSRS COLA:
|
If the CSRS COLA is… |
Then the FERS COLA is… |
|
Up to 2.0% 2.0% to 3.0% Above 3.0% |
Same as CSRS COLA 2.0% CSRS COLA minus 1.0% |
The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Associations (NARFE) has supported this type of change in the past. A statement from NARFE’s president in 2019 was: “Nearly 800,000 FERS retirees are paying the price for a flawed law dating back to the 1980s that capped their COLA at 2 percent when consumer prices increase between 2 and 3 percent per year. The Equal COLA Act is common sense legislation that would change this unfair policy to ensure FERS retirees receive a full COLA each year, and as a result, create parity between the FERS COLA and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) COLA”