II

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 849

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 29 (legislative day, MARCH 27), 1995

Received; read the first time

APRIL 5, 1995

Read the second time and placed on the calendar

FEBRUARY 9 (legislative day, FEBRUARY 7), 1996

Ordered referred to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources until the

close of business on March 27, 1996, to report or to be discharged and

placed on the calendar

AN ACT

To amend the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of

1967 to reinstate an exemption for certain bona fide

hiring and retirement plans applicable to State and local

firefighters and law enforcement officers, and for other

purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Age Discrimination

5 in Employment Amendments of 1995’’.
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1 SEC. 2. REINSTATEMENT OF EXEMPTION.

2 (a) REPEAL OF REPEALER.—Section 3(b) of the Age

3 Discrimination in Employment Amendments of 1986 (29

4 U.S.C. 623 note; Public Law 99–592) is repealed.

5 (b) EXEMPTION.—Section 4(j) of the Age Discrimi6 nation in Employment Act of 1967 (29 U.S.C. 623), as

7 in effect immediately before December 31, 1993—

8 (1) is hereby reenacted as such, and

9 (2) as so reenacted, is amended by striking ‘‘at10 tained the age’’ and all that follows through ‘‘1983,

11 and’’, and inserting the following:

12 ‘‘attained—

13 ‘‘(A) the age of hiring or retirement in ef14 fect under applicable State or local law on

15 March 3, 1983; or

16 ‘‘(B) if the age of retirement was not in ef17 fect under applicable State or local law on

18 March 3, 1983, 55 years of age; and’’.

19 SEC. 3. STUDY AND GUIDELINES FOR PERFORMANCE

20 TESTS.

21 (a) STUDY.—Not later than 3 years after the date

22 of enactment of this Act, the Chairman of the Equal Em23 ployment Opportunity Commission (in this section re24 ferred to as ‘‘the Chairman’’) shall conduct, directly or

25 by contract, a study that will include—
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1 (1) a list and description of all tests available

2 for the assessment of abilities important for comple3 tion of public safety tasks performed by law enforce4 ment officers and firefighters,

5 (2) a list of such public safety tasks for which

6 adequate tests do not exist,

7 (3) a description of the technical characteristics

8 that performance tests must meet to be compatible

9 with applicable Federal civil rights Acts and policies,

10 (4) a description of the alternative methods

11 available for determining minimally acceptable per12 formance standards on the tests described in para13 graph (1),

14 (5) a description of the administrative stand15 ards that should be met in the administration, scor16 ing, and score interpretation of the tests described

17 in paragraph (1), and

18 (6) an examination of the extent to which the

19 tests described in paragraph (1) are cost effective,

20 safe, and comply with Federal civil rights Acts and

21 regulations.

22 (b) ADVISORY GUIDELINES.—Not later than 4 years

23 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Chairman shall

24 develop and issue, based on the results of the study re25 quired by subsection (a), advisory guidelines for the ad-
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1 ministration and use of physical and mental fitness tests

2 to measure the ability and competency of law enforcement

3 officers and firefighters to perform the requirements of

4 their jobs.

5 (c) CONSULTATION REQUIREMENT; OPPORTUNITY

6 FOR PUBLIC COMMENT.—(1) The Chairman shall, during

7 the conduct of the study required by subsection (a), con8 sult with—

9 (A) the United States Fire Administration,

10 (B) the Federal Emergency Management

11 Agency,

12 (C) organizations that represent law enforce13 ment officers, firefighters, and their employers, and

14 (D) organizations that represent older individ15 uals.

16 (2) Before issuing the advisory guidelines required in

17 subsection (b), the Chairman shall allow for public com18 ment on the proposed guidelines.

19 (d) DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDS FOR WELLNESS

20 PROGRAMS.—Not later than 2 years after the date of the

21 enactment of this Act, the Chairman shall propose advi22 sory standards for wellness programs for law enforcement

23 officers and firefighters.
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1 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is

2 authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section

3 $5,000,000.

4 SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATES.

5 (a) GENERAL EFFECTIVE DATE.—Except as pro6 vided in subsection (b), this Act shall take effect on the

7 date of the enactment of this Act.

8 (b) SPECIAL EFFECTIVE DATE.—Section 2(b)(1)

9 shall take effect on December 31, 1993.

Passed the House of Representatives March 28,

1995.

Attest: ROBIN H. CARLE,

Clerk.