Bill Would Give Equal COLA to Both FERS and CSRS Federal Retirees

Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) last month introduced legislation — the Equal COLA Act (S 4221) —that would guarantee federal retirees in the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) receive the same annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) each year. Under current law established in 1986, the following table summarizes the FERS COLA in relation to the CSRS COLA:

If the CSRS COLA is…
Up to 2.0%
2.0% to 3.0%
Above 3.0%

Then the FERS COLA is…
Same as CSRS COLA
2.0%
CSRS COLA minus 1.0%

As an example, this year while federal retirees in the CSRS program received a 5.9% COLA increase, FERS retirees received a 4.9% increase in their federal retirement annuity.

Support by NARFE
The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association’s National President Ken Thomas endorsed the proposed legislation in this statement: Follow link to read more: https://bit.ly/39OgDMW