In the summer of 2016, the Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) implemented a revised policy with respect to whether the FERS retirement
annuity supplement (RAS) was divisible between a retiree and his or her former
spouse regardless of whether the RAS was specifically cited in the terms
of the divorce decree. However, OPM failed to notify the public or
impacted retirees of the revised policy prior to its implementation despite the
fact that such decision would have far-reaching financial implications for both
retirees and their former spouses. For the past two years, FLEOA has
engaged with Congress and officials at OPM over the agency’s clandestine
efforts to "redistribute” a portion of the FERS retirement annuity supplement
between a federal retiree and his or her former spouse.
Since 2016, both the OPM-OIG and MSPB have found that OPM’s
actions constituted a reinterpretation of current law that was outside of the
agency’s authority and was done absent a specific grant of authority from
Congress or through a notice-and-comment rulemaking process. In the more
than two years since it implemented this revised policy, OPM has applied its
reinterpretation retroactively, and in some cases years after the retiree and
his or her former spouse had divorced and reopened state court orders dividing
FERS benefits. This has resulted in serious financial harm to retirees
and has created debts due to the federal government of as much as
$28,389.96—debts for which OPM has sought repayment in the form of prospective
and retrospective assessments from annuitants’ retirement benefits.
It has been a long, uphill climb to try and overturn OPM’s
clandestine actions—one made all the more difficult by the lack of transparency
on the part of OPM to provide information to FLEOA and Congress over two
Administrations. We are, however, making progress and FLEOA is working
hard with its allies on Capitol Hill to have legislation introduced within
weeks. This legislation will clarify that the RAS is divisible between a
retiree and his or her former spouse only if the RAS is specifically cited in
the terms of the divorce decree, and it will provide full retroactive relief to
any retiree who has been "billed” for repayment by OPM.
Additional background on the RAS issue and FLEOA’s efforts
to date is available here . We will
provide updates on our progress to move this legislation forward as
circumstances warrant.
Contact Dominic Stokes for more info/questions.