Title: To allow certain governmental pension plans to include firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics, and for other purposes.
Policy area: Taxation

Summary:
This bill expands the coverage of tax-exempt governmental pension plans to include emergency response providers, such as firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics,

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8538 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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 referred 
                   to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To allow certain governmental pension plans to include firefighters, 
 emergency medical technicians, and paramedics, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. GOVERNMENTAL PENSION PLANS MAY INCLUDE CERTAIN FIREFIGHTERS, 
              EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS, AND PARAMEDICS.

    (a) In General.--Subsection (d) of section 414 of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to governmental 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 political subdivision 
                thereof, or by any agency or instrumentality of any of 
                the foregoing,
                    ``(B) any plan to which the Railroad Retirement Act 
                of 1935 or 1937 applies and which is financed by 
                contributions required under that Act,
                    ``(C) any plan of an international organization 
                which is exempt from taxation by reason of the 
                International Organizations Immunities Act (59 Stat. 
                669), or
                    ``(D) a plan which is established and maintained by 
                an Indian tribal government (as defined in section 
                7701(a)(40)), a subdivision of an Indian tribal 
                government (determined in accordance with section 
                7871(d)), or an agency or instrumentality of either, 
                and all of the participants 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 performance of 
                commercial activities (whether or not an essential 
                government function).
            ``(2) Special rule for emergency response 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-hospital emergency medical services for a political 
        subdivision 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.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall apply 
to plan years beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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