I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8538 
To allow certain governmental pension plans to include firefighters, emergency 
medical technicians, and paramedics, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 6, 2020 
Mr. HOLDING (for himself, Mr. MCHENRY, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. MURPHY 
of North Carolina, Ms. FOXX of North Carolina, Mr. PRICE of North 
Carolina, Mr. WALKER, Mr. ROUZER, Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina, Mr. 
HUDSON, and Mr. BUDD) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To allow certain governmental pension plans to include fire-
fighters, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. GOVERNMENTAL PENSION PLANS MAY IN-
CLUDE 
CERTAIN 
FIREFIGHTERS, 
EMER-
GENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS, AND PARA-
MEDICS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (d) of section 414 of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to govern-
mental plans) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(d) GOVERNMENTAL PLAN.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this part, 
the term ‘governmental plan’ means— 
‘‘(A) a plan established and maintained for 
its employees by the Government of the United 
States, by the government of any State or polit-
ical subdivision thereof, or by any agency or in-
strumentality of any of the foregoing, 
‘‘(B) any plan to which the Railroad Re-
tirement Act of 1935 or 1937 applies and which 
is financed by contributions required under that 
Act, 
‘‘(C) any plan of an international organiza-
tion which is exempt from taxation by reason of 
the International Organizations Immunities Act 
(59 Stat. 669), or 
‘‘(D) a plan which is established and main-
tained by an Indian tribal government (as de-
fined in section 7701(a)(40)), a subdivision of 
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an Indian tribal government (determined in ac-
cordance with section 7871(d)), or an agency or 
instrumentality of either, and all of the partici-
pants of which are employees of such entity 
substantially all of whose services as such an 
employee are in the performance of essential 
governmental functions but not in the perform-
ance of commercial activities (whether or not an 
essential government function). 
‘‘(2) SPECIAL
RULE
FOR
EMERGENCY
RE-
SPONSE
PROVIDERS.—For purposes of paragraph 
(1), a public safety agency (described in section 
501(c) and exempt from taxation under section 
501(a)) that employs emergency response providers 
(defined in section 2 of the Homeland Security Act 
of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101)), substantially all of whose 
services as emergency response providers are in the 
performance of firefighting services or out-of-hos-
pital emergency medical services for a political sub-
division of a State under a contract between such 
public safety agency and the political subdivision of 
a State, may opt to join the governmental plan of 
such State or political subdivision.’’. 
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