I
104TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2487
To amend title 5, United States Code, to allow periods of certain service
performed as an employee under certain Federal-State cooperative pro-
grams to be creditable for purposes of civil service retirement.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 17, 1995
Mr. ROSE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Government Reform and Oversight, and in addition to the Committees
on Agriculture, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to allow periods of
certain service performed as an employee under certain
Federal-State cooperative programs to be creditable for
purposes of civil service retirement.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Agricultural Extended
Retirement Credit Act’’.
SEC. 2. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to extend creditable service, for purposes of
the Civil Service Retirement System, for periods of
service in certain qualified Federal-State cooperative
programs which had agricultural or related pur-
poses;
(2) to expedite the retirement of certain Fed-
eral Government employees, thereby mitigating po-
tentially adverse effects of deficit control measures
on the welfare of those and other employees of the
Department of Agriculture; and
(3) to effect savings in budget authority and
outlays in the Department of Agriculture in such a
manner that the potential for adverse effects on pro-
gram effectiveness is minimized.
SEC. 3. EXTENSION OF CREDITABLE SERVICE.
(a) DEFINITION.—Section 8331 of title 5, United
States Code, is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon at the
end of paragraph (25);
(2) by striking the period at the end of para-
graph (26) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and
(3) by adding after such paragraph (26) the
following:
‘‘(27) ‘extended credit’ means creditable service
for periods of service in Federal-State cooperative
programs under section 8332(b)(17).’’.
(b) CREDITABLE SERVICE.—Section 8332(b) of title
5, United States Code, is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon at the
end of paragraph (15);
(2) by striking the period at the end of para-
graph (16) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and
(3) by adding after such paragraph (16) the
following:
‘‘(17) subject to sections 8334(c) and 8339(i),
service performed before January 1, 1984, by an in-
dividual in the employ of a State who performed du-
ties related to the carrying out of a Federal-State
cooperative program described in subsection (o)(1)
of this section—
‘‘(A) only if (i) the individual was later em-
ployed in a position which at that time was sub-
ject to this subchapter, and (ii) the individual,
or the individual’s survivor, makes application
for certification of credit for such service on or
before the 150th day following the date of the
enactment of the Agricultural Extended Retire-
ment Credit Act; and
‘‘(B) if the individual is an employee of the
Federal Government on the date of enactment
of the Agricultural Extended Retirement Credit
Act, other than as a reemployed annuitant, and
if, after having received extended credit, the in-
dividual is, or becomes eligible for immediate
retirement on or before August 1 of the fiscal
year in which the ‘hiring limitation period’
(within the meaning of section 4 of the Agricul-
tural Extended Retirement Credit Act) ends,
only if the individual retires either on or before
the 240th day following the date of enactment
of the Agricultural Extended Retirement Credit,
or on or before the 60th day following the date
on which eligibility for immediate retirement is
attained, whichever occurs later.’’.
(c) CERTIFICATION.—Section 8332(b) of title 5,
United States Code, is further amended by adding at the
end the following: ‘‘The Office of Personnel Management
shall accept the certification of the Secretary of Agri-
culture, or his designee, concerning service for the pur-
poses of this subchapter of the type described in para-
graph (17).’’.
(d) DESCRIPTION OF FEDERAL-STATE COOPERATIVE
PROGRAMS.—Section 8332 of title 5, United States Code,
is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(o)(1) The Federal-State cooperative programs de-
scribed in this subsection for which creditable service is
allowable under subsection (b)(17) of this section are as
follows:
‘‘(A) The Federal-State cooperative program of
agricultural research of the State agricultural exper-
iment stations as defined in section 1 of the Act en-
titled ‘An Act to consolidate the Hatch Act of 1887
and laws supplementary thereto relating to the ap-
propriation of Federal funds for support of agricul-
tural experiment stations in the States, Alaska, Ha-
waii, and Puerto Rico’, approved August 11, 1955,
as amended (69 Stat. 671).
‘‘(B) The Federal-State cooperative program of
forestry research at eligible institutions of the State
as defined in section 2 of the Act entitled ‘An Act
to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to encour-
age and assist the several States in carrying on a
program of forestry research, and for other pur-
poses’, approved October 10, 1962, as amended (76
Stat. 806), and popularly referred to as the
McIntire-Stennis Act.
joint resolution entitled ‘Joint resolution making
funds available for the control of incipient or emer-
gency outbreaks of insect pests or plant diseases, in-
cluding grasshoppers, mormon crickets, and chinch
bugs’, approved April 6, 1937 (50 Stat. 57); by the
Act entitled ‘An Act to provide for regulating, in-
specting, cleaning, and, when necessary, disinfecting
railway cars, other vehicles, and other materials en-
tering the United States from Mexico’, approved
January 31, 1942 (56 Stat. 40); by the Act entitled
‘An Act to regulate the importation of nursery stock
and other plants and plant products; to enable the
Secretary of Agriculture to establish and maintain
quarantine districts for plant diseases and insect
pests; to permit and regulate the movement of
fruits, plants, and vegetables therefrom, and for
other purposes’, approved August 20, 1912 (37 Stat.
315); by the first paragraph under the subheading
‘Enforcement of the Plant-Quarantine Act’ under
the heading ‘Miscellaneous’ of the Act entitled ‘An
Act making appropriations for the Department of
Agriculture for the fiscal year ending June 30,
1914’, approved March 4, 1913 (37 Stat. 853), inso-
far as such paragraph relates to the importation of
certain plants for scientific purposes; by the second,
third, and fourth paragraphs under the subheading
‘Enforcement of the Plant Quarantine Act’ under
the heading ‘Miscellaneous’ of the Act ‘An Act mak-
ing appropriations for the Department of Agri-
culture for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1916’,
approved March 4, 1915 (38 Stat. 1113); and by
section 11 of the Act entitled ‘An Act for the estab-
lishment of a Bureau of Animal Industry, to prevent
the exportation of diseased cattle, and to provide for
the suppression and extirpation of pleuropneumonia
and other contagious diseases among domestic ani-
mals’, approved May 29, 1884 (23 Stat. 31).
‘‘(H) The Federal-State cooperative programs
of forest protection, management, and improvement
performed under authority of the Act entitled ‘An
Act to provide for the protection of forest lands, for
the reforestation of denuded areas, for the extension
of national forests, and for other purposes, in order
to promote the continuous production of timber on
the lands chiefly suitable therefore’, approved June
7, 1924 (43 Stat. 653); of the ‘Cooperative Forest
Management Act’ approved August 25, 1950 (64
Stat. 473); and of the ‘Forest Pest Control Act’, ap-
proved June 25, 1947 (61 Stat. 177); and the pred-
ecessor programs of any Act referred to in this sub-
paragraph.
‘‘(I) The Federal-State cooperative programs of
emergency relief, including, but not limited to, State
rural rehabilitation corporation programs, estab-
lished for the purposes of the Federal Emergency
Relief Act of 1933, approved May 12, 1933 (48
Stat. 55); the Act entitled ‘An Act making an addi-
tional appropriation to carry out the purposes of the
Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933, for continu-
ation of the civil works program, and for other pur-
poses’, approved February 15, 1934 (48 Stat. 351);
and title 11 of the Act entitled ‘An Act making ap-
propriations to supply deficiencies in certain appro-
priations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1934,
and prior fiscal years, to provide supplemental gen-
eral and emergency appropriations for the fiscal
years ending June 30, 1934, and June 30, 1935,
and for other purposes’, approved June 19, 1934
(48 Stat. 1021).
‘‘(J) The Federal-State Cooperative Veterans’
educational programs, including, but not limited to,
part-time instruction in on-the-farm training pro-
grams, as provided for in title II, chapter IV, ‘Edu-
cation of Veterans’, of the ‘Serviceman’s Readjust-
ment Act of 1944’, approved June 22, 1944 (58
Stat. 287), and subsequent amendments and Acts
pertaining thereto.
‘‘(K) The Federal-State cooperative programs
in wildlife restoration and in fish restoration and
management authorized respectively by the Acts en-
titled ‘An Act to provide that the United States shall
aid these States in wildlife restoration projects, and
for other purposes’, approved September 2, 1937
(50 Stat. 917) and popularly referred to as the Pitt-
man-Robertson Act, and ‘An Act to provide that the
United States shall aid the States in fish restoration
and management projects, and for other purposes’,
approved August 9, 1950 and popularly referred to
as the Dingell-Johnson Act (64 Stat. 431) and the
program of animal damage control authorized by the
Act entitled ‘An Act to authorize the Secretary of
Agriculture to carry out his ten year cooperative
program for the eradication, suppression, or bring-
ing under control of predatory and other wild ani-
mals injurious to agriculture, horticulture, forestry,
animal husbandry, wild game, and other interests,
and for the suppression of rabies and tularemia in
predatory or other wild animals, and for other pur-
poses’, approved March 2, 1931 (46 Stat. 1468) as
amended and supplemented.
‘‘(2) Within 60 days following the date of enactment
of the Agricultural Extended Requirement Credit Act, the
Office of Personnel Management shall prescribe specific
instructions to be followed by the Secretary of Agriculture
in determining eligibility for extended credit for periods
of service in the Federal-State cooperative programs enu-
merated in paragraph (1), and by individuals in making
application for such extended credit.’’.
(e) ANNUITY ADJUSTMENTS.—Section 8345 of title
5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end
the following:
‘‘(m) If the Secretary of Agriculture certifies to the
Office of Personnel Management creditable service for
purposes of this subchapter of the type described in sec-
tion 8332(b)(17) in response to application by an annu-
itant or survivor annuitant, then the annuity of the annu-
itant or survivor annuitant shall be adjusted on the first
day of the month following the date of enactment of the
Agricultural Extended Retirement Credit Act so that the
amount of the annuity shall be the same as if the total
creditable service of the employee or Member, on whose
creditable service the annuity was computed, had included,
on the original date on which the annuity was computed,
the amount of service certified.’’.
SEC. 4. LIMITATION ON REPLACEMENT OF RETIREES.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of law, except as provided in subsection (b), an ap-
pointment may not be made to a position of civilian em-
ployment in the Department of Agriculture on any day
during the hiring limitation period, unless the full-time
employee equivalent of the total number of civilian employ-
ees in the Department, after such appointment on such
day does not exceed the maximum authorized full-time em-
ployee equivalent number determined for such day, as pro-
vided in subsection (e)(2).
(b) WAIVER.—The Secretary of Agriculture or his
designate may waive the application of subsection (a) in
the case of a position or a category of positions in the
Department of Agriculture if the Secretary (or his des-
ignee) determines that the estimated aggregate cost of
such position or positions during the hiring limitation pe-
riod does not exceed the estimated aggregate amount of
user fees that will be collected by the Federal Government
for services performed under a Federal Government pro-
gram or programs during such period by an employee in
such position or employees in such positions.
(c) INAPPLICABILITY
OF LIMITATION
TO INTER-
AGENCY TRANSFER.—Subsection (a) does not prohibit the
transfer of employees within the Department of Agri-
culture for the purpose of filling a vacancy in a Depart-
ment of Agriculture position.
(d) INAPPLICABILITY OF LIMITATION DURING A PE-
RIOD OF WAR OR NATIONAL EMERGENCY.—Subsection
(a) shall not apply during a period of war declared by the
Congress or for a period of national emergency declared
by the Congress or the President.
(e) DEFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this sec-
tion—
(1) the term ‘‘employee’’ has the same meaning
as provided in section 2105 of title 5, United States
Code;
(2) the term ‘‘maximum authorized full-time
employee equivalent number’’ means the excess of—
(A) the smaller of the full-time employee
equivalent number that describes the total num-
ber of employees employed in positions in the
Department of Agriculture on the day before
the hiring limitation retirement period com-
mences, or the full-time employee equivalent
number that describes the maximum number of
employees authorized to be employed in the De-