II
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 633
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
OCTOBER 6 (legislative day, OCTOBER 2), 1998
Received
AN ACT
To amend the Foreign Service Act of 1980 to provide that
the annuities of certain special agents and security per-
sonnel of the Department of State be computed in the
same way as applies generally with respect to Federal
law enforcement officers, and for other purposes.
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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 ‘‘Department of State
Special Agents Retirement Act of 1998’’.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS RELATING TO THE FOREIGN SERV-
ICE RETIREMENT AND DISABILITY SYSTEM.
(a) DEFINITION OF A SPECIAL AGENT.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 804 of the Foreign
Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 4044) is amended—
(A) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para-
graph (13);
(B) by striking the period at the end of
paragraph (14) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(15) ‘special agent’ means an employee of the
Department of State with a primary skill code of
2501—
‘‘(A) the duties of whose position—
‘‘(i) are primarily—
‘‘(I) the investigation, apprehen-
sion, or detention of individuals sus-
pected or convicted of offenses against
the criminal laws of the United
States, or
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‘‘(II) the protection of persons
pursuant to section 2709(a)(3) of title
22, United States Code, against
threats to personal safety; and
‘‘(ii) are sufficiently rigorous that em-
ployment opportunities should be limited to
young and physically vigorous individuals,
as determined by the Secretary of State
pursuant to section 4823 of title 22,
United States Code;
‘‘(B) performing duties described in sub-
paragraph (A) before, on, or after the date of
the enactment of this paragraph; or
‘‘(C) transferred directly to a position
which is supervisory or administrative in nature
after performing duties described in subpara-
graph (A) for at least 3 years.’’.
(2) CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—Section 852
of such Act (22 U.S.C. 4071a) is amended—
(A) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para-
graph (7);
(B) by striking the period at the end of
paragraph (8) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
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‘‘(9) the term ‘special agent’ has the same
meaning given in section 804(15).’’.
(b) CONTRIBUTIONS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 805(a) of such Act
(22 U.S.C. 4045(a)) is amended by adding at the
end the following:
‘‘(3) For service as a special agent, paragraph (1)
shall be applied by substituting for ‘7 percent’ the percent-
age that applies to law enforcement officers under section
8334(a)(1) of title 5, United States Code.’’.
(2) 
CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—Section
805(a)(1) (22 U.S.C. 4045(a)(1)) of such Act is
amended by striking ‘‘Except as provided in sub-
section (h),’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as otherwise
provided in this section,’’.
(c) SPECIAL
CONTRIBUTION
FOR
PRIOR
NON-
DEPOSIT SERVICE.—Section 805(d) of such Act (22
U.S.C. 4045(d)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing:
‘‘(6) Subject to paragraph (4) and subsection (h), for
purposes of applying this subsection with respect to prior
service as a special agent, the percentages of basic pay
set forth in section 8334(c) of title 5, United States Code,
with respect to a law enforcement officer, shall apply in-
stead of the percentages set forth in paragraph (1).’’.
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than for cause on charges of misconduct or delin-
quency, or retires for disability under section 808;
and
‘‘(II) at the time of retirement—
‘‘(aa) if voluntary, is at least 50 years of
age and has completed at least 20 years of serv-
ice as a special agent; or
‘‘(bb) if involuntary or disability, has com-
pleted at least 20 years of service as a special
agent; or
‘‘(ii) dies in Service after completing at least 20
years of service as a special agent, when an annuity
is payable under section 809.
‘‘(C) For purposes of subparagraph (B), included
with the years of service performed by an individual as
a special agent shall be any service performed by such in-
dividual as a law enforcement officer (within the meaning
of section 8331(20) or section 8401(17) of title 5, United
States Code), or a member of the Capitol Police.’’.
(2) SPECIAL RULE FOR SPECIAL AGENTS WITH
PRIOR SERVICE UNDER THE FOREIGN SERVICE RE-
TIREMENT AND DISABILITY SYSTEM OR THE CIVIL
SERVICE RETIREMENT SYSTEM.—Section 806(a) of
such Act (22 U.S.C. 4046(a)), as amended by para-
graph (1), is further amended—
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(A) by redesignating paragraph (7) (as so
redesignated by paragraph (1)) as paragraph
(8); and
(B) by inserting after paragraph (6) (as
added by paragraph (1)) the following:
‘‘(7) In the case of a special agent who becomes
or became subject to subchapter II—
‘‘(A) for purposes of paragraph (6)(B),
any service performed by the individual as a
special agent (whether under this subchapter or
under subchapter II), as a law enforcement offi-
cer (within the meaning of section 8331(20) or
section 8401(17) of title 5, United States
Code), or as a member of the Capitol Police
shall be creditable; and
‘‘(B) if the individual satisfies paragraph
6(B), the portion of such individual’s annuity
which is attributable to service under the For-
eign Service Retirement and Disability System
or the Civil Service Retirement System shall be
computed in conformance with paragraph (6).’’.
(3) TECHNICAL
AND
CONFORMING
AMEND-
MENTS.—
(A) Paragraph (8) of section 806(a) of
such Act (22 U.S.C. 4046(a)), as so redesig-
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nated by paragraph (2)(A), is amended by
striking ‘‘and (4)’’ and inserting ‘‘(4), and (6)’’.
(B) Paragraphs (1) and (3) of section
855(b) of such Act (22 U.S.C. 4071d(b)) are
each amended by inserting ‘‘611,’’ after ‘‘608,’’.
SEC. 3. MANDATORY SEPARATION OF SPECIAL AGENTS.
The first sentence of section 812(a)(2) of the Foreign
Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 4052(a)(2)) is amended
to read as follows: ‘‘Notwithstanding paragraph (1)—
‘‘(A) an individual described in section 4(a)(2)
of the Department of State Special Agents Retire-
ment Act of 1998 who is otherwise eligible for imme-
diate retirement under this chapter, or
‘‘(B) a Foreign Service criminal investigator/in-
spector of the Office of Inspector General of the
Agency for International Development who would
have been eligible for retirement pursuant to either
section 8336(c) or 8412(d) of title 5, United States
Code, as applicable, had the employee remained in
civil service,
shall be separated from the Service on the last day of the
month in which such individual under subparagraph (A)
or such Foreign Service criminal investigator/inspector
under subparagraph (B) attains 57 years of age or com-
pletes 20 years of service if then over that age.’’.
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SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICABILITY.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection
(b), this Act and the amendments made by this Act—
(1) shall take effect on the date of the enact-
ment of this Act; and
(2) shall apply with respect to—
(A) any individual first appointed on or
after that date as a special agent who will have
any portion of such individual’s annuity com-
puted in conformance with section 806(a)(6) of
the Foreign Service Act; and
(B) any individual making an election
under subsection (b), subject to the provisions
of such subsection.
(b) ELECTION FOR CURRENT PARTICIPANTS.—
(1) ELIGIBILITY.—An election under this sub-
section may be made by any currently employed par-
ticipant under chapter 8 of the Foreign Service Act
of 1980 who is serving or has served as a special
agent, or by a survivor of a special agent who was
eligible to make an election under this section.
(2) EFFECT OF AN ELECTION.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—If an individual makes
an election under this subsection, the amend-
ments made by this Act shall become applicable
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with respect to such individual, subject to sub-
paragraph (B).
(B) TREATMENT OF PRIOR SERVICE.—
(i) SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION.—An in-
dividual may, after making the election
under this subsection, make a special con-
tribution up to the full amount of the dif-
ference between the contributions actually
deducted from pay for prior service and
the deductions that would have been re-
quired if the amendments made by this Act
had then been in effect. Any special con-
tributions under this clause shall be com-
puted under regulations based on section
805(d) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980
(as amended by section 2), including provi-
sions relating to the computation of inter-
est.
(ii) ACTUARIAL REDUCTION.—
(I) RULE IF THE SPECIAL CON-
TRIBUTION
IS
PAID.—If the full
amount of the special contribution
under clause (i) is paid, no reduction
under this clause shall apply.
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(II) RULE
IF
LESS
THAN
THE
ENTIRE AMOUNT IS PAID.—If no spe-
cial contribution under clause (i) is
paid, or if less than the entire amount
of such special contribution is paid,
the recomputed annuity shall be re-
duced by an amount sufficient to
make up the actuarial present value of
the shortfall.
(c) REGULATIONS AND NOTICE.—Not later than 6
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
Secretary of State—
(1) shall promulgate such regulations as may be
necessary to carry out this Act; and
(2) shall take measures reasonably designed to
provide notice to participants as to any rights they
might have under this Act.
(d) ELECTION DEADLINE.—An election under sub-
section (b) must be made not later than 90 days after
the date on which the relevant notice under subsection
(c)(2) is provided.
(e) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the
term ‘‘special agent’’ has the meaning given such term