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"z EIGHTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

ON

H.R. 5708

A BILL TO AMEND THE FEDERAL EMPLOYEES HEALTH

BENEFITS ACT OF 1959 TO EXTEND COVERAGE TO CERTAIN

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS

APRIL 29, 1964

Printed for the use of the

Committee on Post Office and Civil Service

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

32-507 WASHINGTON: 1904

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COMMITTEE ON POST OFFICE AND CIVIL SERVICE

TOM MURRAY Tennessee, Chairman

JAMES H. MORRISON, Louisiana

THADDEUS J. DULSKI, New York

DAVID N. HENDERSON, North Carolina

ARNOLD OLSEN, Montana

MORRIS K. UDALL, Arizona

DOMINICK V. DANIELS, New Jersey

LINDLEY BECKWORTH, Texas

HARLEY 0. STAGGERS, West Virginia

ROBERT N. C. NIX, Pennsylvania

JOE R. POOL, Texas

ALBERT W. WATSON, South Carolina

EDWARD R. ROYBAL, California

CHARLES H. WILSON, California

CHARLES E. JOHNSON, Staff Director

JOHN H. MARTIN?, Counsel

B. BENTON BRAY, Professional Staff Member

WILLIAM A. IRVINE, Professional Staff Member

ROBERT J. CORBETT, Pennsylvania

H. R. GROSS, Iowa

AUGUST E. JOHANSEN, Michigan

GLENN CUNNINGHAM, Nebraska

GEORGE M. WALLHAUSER, New Jersey

ROBERT R. BARRY, New York

KATHARINE ST. GEORGE, New York

EDWARD J. DERWINSKI, Illinois

ROBERT F. ELLSWORTH, Kansas

HOMER E. ABELE, Ohio

ALBERT W. JOHNSON, Pennsylvania

SUBCOMMITTEE APPOINTED To CONSIDER H.R. 5708

EDWARD R. ROYBAL, California, Chairman

JOE R. POOL, Texas GLENN CUNNINGHAM, Nebraska

CHARLES H. WILSON, California ALBERT W. JOHNSON, Pennsylvania

z
CONTENTS

Statement of—

Bennett, Hon. Charles E., a Representative in Congress from the

State of Florida 

Ruddock, Andrew E., Director, Bureau of Retirement and Insurance,

Civil Service Commission 

111

Page

2

4

EXTENDING HEALTH BENEFITS TO CERTAIN U.S.

COMMISSIONERS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 1964

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

COMMITTEE ON POST OFFICE AND CIVIL SERVICE,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m., in room 215,

Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Edward R. Roybal presiding.

Mr. ROYBAL. The subcommittee will come to order.

This subcommittee was appointed to consider H.R. 5708, introduced

by our colleague from Florida, Congressman Charles E. Bennett.

The bill is designed to amend the Federal Employees Health Benefits

Act of 1959 to extend coverage to certain U.S. commissioners. The

other members of the subcommittee are Mr. Pool, Mr. Wilson, Mr.

Cunningham, and Mr. Johnson.

U.S. commissioners are appointed by the U.S. district courts for

4-year terms upon the basis of public need. They perform miscellaneous services, primarily as committing magistrates, and have no

fixed hours of work or scheduled tours of duty. They are compensated by fees, set by law, for acts performed. Each commissioner

makes quarterly accounting to the Director, Administrative Office

of the U.S. Courts, and is paid the total fees due him upon approval

of the quarterly accounting.

Commissioners are Federal officers but have not been included under

the various benefit programs applicable to Government employees

paid on a salaried basis, except for the Civil Service Retirement Act,

which in 1956 was extended by law to cover commissioners with total

earned compensation of $3,000 or more for each of 3 consecutive

calendar years. As of December 31, 1962, only 49 of the approximately

686 U.S. commissioners had acquired coverage under the Retirement

Act.

H.R. 5708 would extend to those U.S. commissioners who qualify

for coverage under the Retirement Act the provisions of the Federal

Employees Health Benefits Act of 1959. The Civil Service Commission reports no objection to the enactment of this legislation and that

its cost to the Government would be negligible.

(H.R. 5708 follows:)

[H.R. 5708, 88th Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL To amend the Federal Employees Health Benefits Act of 1959 to extend coverage to certain United

States commissioners

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of

America in Congress assembled, That section 2(a) of the Federal Employees Health

Benefits Act of 1959 is amended by inserting after the word "includes" the following: "any United States commissioner to whom the Civil Service Retirement Act

applies by operation of section 2(g) of that Act,".

1
2 HEALTH BENEFITS TO "UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS

Mr. ROYBAL. We have with us this morning the author of the bill,

the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Bennett, and Mr. Andrew E.

Ruddock, Director of the Bureau of Retirement and Insurance of

the Civil Service Commission. We will ask Mr. Bennett to present

his testimony first.

STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES E. BENNETT, A REPRESENTATIVE

IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA

Mr. BENNETT. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I have a

formal statement I would like to put in the record at this point, and

then I will go on informally so I will not be repetitious.

(The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES E. BENNETT OF FLORIDA

Mr. Chairman, this legislation would extend eligibility to enroll in an approved

Federal health benefits program to each U.S. commissioner then or thereafter

subject to the Civil Service Retirement Act, where the commissioner's total

annual compensation (fees earned) is $3,000 or more for each of 3 consecutive years.

As in the case of commissioners covered by the Civil Service Retirement Act,

health benefits coverage once acquired on this basis would not be lost solely

because a commissioner's total annual compensation later dropped below $3,000.

As you know, U.S. commissioners are appointed by the U.S. district courts

for 4-year terms upon the basis of public need. They perform miscellaneous

services, but act primarily as committing magistrates. They are compensated

for their services by fees established by law. Some fee acts may take a few hours'

work, while others may require their services on 2 or more days. Commissioners

are required by law to make a quarterly accounting of fees earned to the Director,

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and then upon approval of the quarterly

account, are paid the total fees then due them. Although the minimum calendar

yearly fee is $4, some commissioners earn the maximum allowed by law of $10,500.

There is no question that U.S. commissioners are clearly Federal officers.

However, 5 U.S.C. 2252(e) provides that the Civil Service Commission may

exclude "any employee or group of employees * * * whose tenure of office or

employment is temporary or intermittent." Acting upon this authority, the

Civil Service Commission has excluded U.S. commissioners as "intermittent"

Federal employees. However, some U.S. commissioners are hardly intermittent,

and the statute before you is to protect them from this regulatory decision. Since

a large number of commissioners, and particularly those earning the $3,000

necessary to qualify for retirement benefits, must stand by for duty during certain

hours of the day, they are no less restricted in their activities than many Federal

salaried employees. It seems to me that commissioners who work a sufficient

number of hours to earn $3,000 in fees annually, for 3 consecutive years, and who

therefore qualify for Federal retirement benefits, should certainly be eligible for

Federal health benefits on the same basis.

By 1959 less than 30 commissioners had qualified for retirement benefits under

the 1956 act, and today there are only 55 of the 701 U.S. commissioners who have

qualified for benefits under the Civil Service Retirement Act.

It seems to me that from the standpoint of equal treatment of Federal personnel

qualified U.S. commissioners should be included under the Federal Employees

Health Benefits Act, and that by bringing these commissioners in line with other

Government personnel it will be in the interest of efficient administration.

The Civil Service Commission advises the cost of extending such coverage to

the small number of U.S. commissioners who would qualify would be negligible,

and they state they have no objection to the inclusion of the persons sought to

be included if it is done by statute. The Bureau of the Budget has also reported

favorably on the bill. In light of the negligible cost factor and the importance

of maintaining a fair and equitable system of Federal employment, I am hopeful

that this committee will report the bill favorably.

Thank you.

Mr. BENNETT. The informal remarks that I will make deal with

a sort of summary in addition to the summary you have made, point-
HEALTH BENEFITS TO UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS 3

ing out that when this law was originally drafted the benefits to

Federal employees allowed for regulation in the Civil Service Commission to eliminate intermittent employees. These U.S. commissioners were not included in the coverage of retirement or any other

benefits of that type on the theory that they were intermittent. It

is certainly so that many of them are intermittent in employment,

but there is a group of less than a hundred who are very substantial

employees of the Federal Government, who devote the vast bulk of

their time to this sort of activity, and who for all practical purposes

are complete Federal employees in every sense of the word, with

obligation to be ready and actually do perform these duties at all

times. This was acknowledged by a law which, subsequent to the

law I have just referred to, allowed retirement benefits to be enjoyed

by a specific minority of these commissioners, who are for all practical

purposes full Federal employees in every sense of the word, and this

bill that I have introduced would allow them to come under the

benefits for health and hospitalization.

In addition to this bill, a suggestion has been made to me just this

morning that since the logic was already determined by the Congress

of including these few U.S. commissioners who have a real career type

of activity under the general law with regard to retirement, and since

this bill deals with health and similar provisions, it would be logical

just to go ahead and evade having a third law introduced in this field

and include these employees by amendment to this bill for certain

additional benefits, on which I understand Mr. Ruddock will testify

further. This would only be life insurance. So I would certainly be

thoroughly agreeable to adding this to the bill.

Many times legislation comes before Congress because of a specific

request that was made. This bill is before you today because in the

district which I represent a gentleman who was formerly a county

judge, Mr. T. V. Cashen, for many years occupied this type of activity

in the Federal court in Jacksonville, Fla. and is acknowledged by

everybody to be just like ordinary Federal employees and therefore

should have such benefits. He only brought to my attention the need

for the health aspect, but as has been pointed out the logic was already

established of including men like Mr. Cashen under all benefits, and so

I think it would be preferable in passing this law, if we do, to also

include the life insurance benefits as well as the things now involved in

this bill. I hope an amendment will be added by the staff, so we

would not have another bill coming in 2 or 3 years to add that.

That is the end of my testimony.

Mr. ROYBAL. All right, sir. Someone, of course, will probably ask

what the cost of this bill is, and I think we should know.

Mr. BENNETT. I am glad to say it has been found to be negligible.

There will be no appreciable cost involved in this bill, and the Bureau

of the Budget has recommended that it pass.

Mr. ROYBAL. IS it possible to determine just how much it really

is, or how many commissioners?

Mr. BENNETT. The last figure I had was 55, and I think you gave

another figure, but there was a different date on it. The statement

from the Civil Service Commission said:

If Congress determines that U.S. commissioners covered by the Civil Service

Retirement Act should be admissible for coverage under the health benefits program, the Commission will not object to the enactment of H.R. 5708. The
4 HEALTH BENEFITS TO UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS

Government's cost of extending such coverage to the small number of U.S.

commissioners who would qualify would be negligible.

They have not given an exact figure. I guess you could arrive at

it, but I could not myself arrive at it.

Mr. ROYBAL. Thank you, Mr. Bennett.

The next witness is Mr. Andrew E. Ruddock.

STATEMENT OF ANDREW E. RUDDOCK, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF

RETIREMENT AND INSURANCE, CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

Mr. RUDDOCK. Mr. Chairman, my name is Andrew E. Ruddock,

Director of the Bureau of Retirement and Insurance, Civil Service

Commission.

I would say on a very rough computation that we are talking

about something in the neighborhood of $3,000, and I would base

that on the fact that the only Government cost is the contribution

the Government as an employer makes toward the cost of whatever

health benefit plan the individual chose. The individual has the

option of taking coverage for himself only or for himself and family.

If he takes coverage for himself alone, the Government contributes

$2.82 a month. If he takes coverage for himself and family, the

Government contribution is $6.76. We have no way of knowing

what the mix would be between self only and self and family, nor how

many of them would choose not to participate. But assuming an

average Government contribution of $60 a year for approximately

50 commissioners, it would be $3,000 a year.

Mr. IRVINE. In order to qualify for coverage under this bill, a

commissioner would already have to have established eligibility for

coverage under the Retirement Act; is that right?

Mr. BENNETT. Would you mind repeating that?

Mr. IRVINE. The commissioner would first have to establish eligibility for coverage under the Retirement Act?

Mr. BENNETT. Correct. He would. That would be the criterion.

In other words, there would be only one decision. That is true under

the law which you have already passed as to those who would have the

benefit of the Retirement Act. With the bill I have introduced, they

would have the benefits of the health program and, under the amendment, life insurance. Is life insurance under this an expensive

program?

Mr. RUDDOCK. In life insurance cost we are talking about would

be considerable less. The Government contribution is much smaller

for life insurance than for health benefits. It is 12% cents biweekly,

or $3.25 per year for each $1,000 of life insurance. For 50 U.S. commissioners the annual Government cost would be about $1,500.

Mr. BENNETT. These commissioners do have a righteous cause,

because they are, from all standpoints and from a practical standpoint, the kind of employees that Congress had in mind, I think, when

they passed the law, and since we have now allowed them to come

under the retirement benefits and are now proposing they come under

the health insurance benefits, to include them under the life insurance,

I think, would be wise. If somebody asked Congress to include them

later you could hardly turn them down.
HEALTH BENEFITS TO UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS 5

It is only these career people under a practice that has grown up in

some Federal courts that we are talking about here. Some Federal

courts use these committing magistrates in a very large degree. And

I might say right here it is an awfully good thing they do, because if I

have any criticism of the Federal court system it is that Federal judges

occupy too much of their time with details; in many courts. We pay

them a good salary and ask these Federal judges to do the sort of thing

that they can turn over to these commissioners, which is an awful

waste of the taxpayers' money. I regret to say that in a very busy

court like the one in Jackson-ville there is a good deal of bootlegging to

deal with, and the commissioner handles these cases. If the Federal

judge had to do this it would take him away from big cases involving

hundreds of millions of dollars and the lives of people and narcotics

and things like that. It would be an awful waste of time. So in the

Federal court system this has grown to the place where in a good number of these instances, less than a hundred of these cases, you have

people that are really spending full time being Federal employees.

They were taken care of under the law that said they could get retirement benefits, but people other than this small number, who are these

U.S. commissioners cannot even get retirement and it is not proposed

to change that.

Mr. ROYBAL. They cannot?

Mr. IRVINE. That is because of the fees. They do not earn over

$3,000.

Mr. BENNETT. That is correct. In other words, the law which was

passed allowing them to have this retirement benefit is very specific.

You have to get more than $3,000 a year, and when you get that

$3,000 in a year you are qualified to come under it.

Mr. IRVINE. But it would be possible under the terms of this bill

for a commissioner who is otherwise eligible for retirement, but who

decides for some reason not to get into the retirement program, to

take advantage of the health benefits?

Mr. BENNETT. It would be. He would not have to take retirement,

but he would have to be qualified to take retirement. Is that correct?

Mr. RUDDOCK. I would like to clarify this one point. When the

U.S. Commissioner meets the condition of earning $3,000 in each of

3 consecutive calendar years, he automatically comes under the Civil

Service Retirement Act without any choice on his part. It is not

optional coverage. At that point he is considered to be essentially a

full-time Federal employee rather than being one of the category of

intermittent or part-time employees without a regular tour of duty,

who are not included in fringe benefits such as retirement, life insurance, and health benefits. There is an element of arbitrariness in the

$3,000 rule, and yet it is the best device that we could find in 1956

for separating the U.S. Commissioners into two categories; one category being the intermittent, part-time, no-regular-tour-of-duty person,

who works and gets paid a fee for each service he perfomrs, and the

other, the US. Commissioner who essentially works full time or

practically full time, just like a regular employee.
'6 HEALTH BENEFITS TO UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS

Part of the testimony that was given in 1956 cited the illustration

of Mr. Stanley King, who is the U.S. commissioner at Alexandria, Va.

In fact, he testified, and he indicated that most of his business comes

from traffic violations on the George Washington Memorial Parkway,

the Federal lands in Virginia, and the whole Pentagon complex, and

these cases come before him. He is the U.S. commissioner, and he is essentially a committing magistrate but has the authority to make

final disposition of any one of these small cases where the person does

not want to have a jury trial. Mr. King testified that he keeps regular

hours, that he goes to his office, which is in one of the Federal buildings

in Alexandria, and he goes at a regular time each day and keeps a

regular schedule just like the rest of us.

Mr. BENNETT. I am glad you corrected me on that. In other

words, once you fall within this definition you automatically and

compulsorily 

you

covered as far as retirement is concerned.

Mr. RUDDOCK. Yes, but it is still completely optional as to whether

you want the health benefits coverage if you are eligible for it, and a

person eligible for life insurance coverage has the option.

Mr. BENNETT. That will be the case if we pass this law. Without

this law they would not have this opportunity.

Mr. RUDDOCK. U.S. commissioners are not presently eligible to

participate in health benefits or life insurance.

Mr. ROYBAL. The bill needs an amendment, does it not?

Mr. RUDDOCK. If the committee wishes to extend eligibility for

coverage under the Federal employees group life insurance system, it

would take an amendment to the bill to accomplish this. I mentioned

this to Mr. Bennett before the hearing, only with the thought that,

while I am not proposing this extension, it seems to me only logical that

unless it is done now we will be sitting around the table next year or

the year after, debating whether life insurance coverage should be

extended to these U.S. commissioners who work practically full time.

The logic is exactly the same on retirement, life insurance, and health

benefits.

Mr. ROYBAL. We will, of course, consider the amendment during

our executive session.

Mr. RUDDOCK. Mr. Chairman, with your permission I would like

to ask that the report from the Civil Service Commission, addressed

to the Honorable Tom Murray, and dated November 18, 1963, be

made a part of the record of this hearing. In that report the Commission expressed the position of no objection to this legislation.

While the Commissioners have not considered the extension of life

insurance as a policy matter, I would express a personal opinion that

there would be no objection from the executive branch to that extension.

Mr. ROYBAL. Without objection, the report will be added to the

record.

(The report referred to follows:)
HEALTH BENEFITS TO UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS

U.S. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION,

Washington, D.C., November 18, 1963.

Hon. TOM MURRAY,

Chairman, Committee on Post Office and Civil Service,

House of Representatives.

. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This refers further to your request of April 26, 1963,

for Commission report on H.R. 5708, a bill to amend the Federal Employees

Health Benefits Act of 1959 to extend coverage to certain U.S. commissioners.

U.S. commissioners are appointed by the U.S. district courts for 4-year terms

upon the basis of public need. They perform miscellaneous services, primarily

as committing magistrates. Commissioners are and always have been compensated by fees, set by law, for acts performed. They have no fixed hours of

work or scheduled tour of duty. Some fee acts may be completed in a day or

less, while others may require the performance of commissioner services on

2 or more days in order to earn the fee for a completed act. Each commissioner

makes a quarterly accounting to the Director, Administrative Office of the U.S.

Courts, and is, upon approval of the quarterly account, paid the total of fees

then due him.

While commissioners are clearly Federal officers, the nature of their employment is such that they have traditionally not been included under the various

benefit programs applicable to Government employees who perform regular

service on a salaried basis. A single exception in this regard is retirement.

In enacting the Civil Service Retirement Amendments of 1956, Congress saw

fit to extend retirement coverage to those commissioners with total compensation

(fees earned) of $3,000 or more for each of 3 consecutive calendar years, starting

from calendar year 1953. A commissioner meeting these requirements is automatically covered by the Retirement Act, with service credit allowable for all

days on which commissioner service is performed. The Administrative Office

of the U.S. Courts advises informally that there are currently about 686 U.S.

commissioners under appointment. As of December 31, 1962, only 49 commissioners had acquired Retirement Act coverage under the described provisions.

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Act of 1959 extends eligibility to

enroll in an approved health benefits plan to all employees of the Government

who are not excluded by law or Commission regulation. The act authorizes this

Commission to provide for the exclusion of employees "on the basis of the nature

and type of their employment or conditions pertaining thereto, such as, but not

limited to, short-term appointments, seasonal or intermittent employment, and

employment of like nature * *

In line with this directive, the Commission has adopted regulations (title 5,

Code of Federal Regulations, sec. 89.2(b)) which exclude, among others, "intermittent employees—non-full-time employees without a prearranged regular tour

of duty" and 'employees paid on a contract or fee basis." Since U.S. commissioners have no regular tour of duty and are paid on a fee basis, they are not

eligible to be enrolled in a health benefits plan.

Effective upon enactment, H.R. 5708 would extend eligibility to enroll in an

approved health benefits plan to each U.S. commissioner then or thereafter

subject to the Civil Service Retirement Act based on total compensation (fees

earned) of $3,000 or more for each of 3 consecutive calendar years. As is the

case with Retirement Act coverage, health benefits coverage once acquired on

this basis would not be lost solely because a U.S. commissioner's total annual

compensation later dropped below $3,000.

In January 1962, the Commission had for consideration a request that it change

the governing regulations to afford U.S. commissioners coverage under the health

benefits program (and under the group life insurance program, which operates

under similar regulatory exclusions), either on a general basis or limited to commissioners whose duties usually call for full-time availability. The Commission

decided that no such regulatory change was warranted and denied the request.

This decision was based on two major factors: (I) The facts of U.S. commissioner

employment indicated they were within the class of employees Congress intended

the Commission to exclude by regulation, and (2) Congress had set a policy as

regards fringe benefits for U.S. commissioners—it had legislated retirement

benefits for them on a restricted basis in 1956, but had not seen fit to include them

in the other programs.
8 HEALTH BENEFITS TO UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS

If Congress determines that U.S. commissioners covered by the Civil Service

Retirement Act should be made eligible for coverage under the Federal Employees

Health Benefits program, the Commission will not object to the enactment of

H.R. 5708. The Government cost of extending such coverage to the small

number of U.S. commissioners who would qualify would be negligible.

The Bureau of the Budget advises that from the standpoint of the administration's program there is no objection to the submission of this report.

By direction of the Commission:

Sincerely yours,

JOHN W. MACY, Jr., Chairman.

Mr. ROYBAL. I think that covers the questions I was going to ask

you. You anticipated my questions.

Mr. BENNETT. Thank you very much.

(Whereupon, at 10:20 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.)