The Foreign Service Journal, June 2007

60 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / J UN E 2 0 0 7 I n 2002, after years of lobbying, AFSA and Foreign Service families welcomed the adoption of legislation authorizing the PITbuyback program. AFSA success- fully argued that family members should be able to purchase credit toward retire- ment for their service as PIT employees (part-time, intermittent or temporary employees) at U.S. missions overseas between January 1989 and May 1998. Recently, problems in implementation have arisen as a new requirement for eli- gibility has been added. Before 1989, PIT employees could buy Civil Service Retirement Systemcredit for their service. A new Civil Service retire- ment system, the Federal Employees Retirement System, went into effect in 1989, but did not include employees who worked less than full time, which effective- ly excludedPIT employees. Then in 1998 the department created a new five-year limited appointment, the FamilyMember Appointment, which provided for retire- ment andThrift Savings Planbenefits. This left a nearly 10-year gap in which family members could not get retirement credit for less than full-time service abroad. According to the conference report for the PIT buyback legislation, the measure was intended to remedy an inequity by “permitting individualswith creditable ser- vice as PIT appointees between 1989 and 1998 to receive credit andmake a deposit into the Federal Employees Retirement Systemfor all or part of that period.” Both this legislation and the department’s implementing regulations provided that this relief be strictly limited to familymem- bers who had served at U.S. missions abroad. Recently — without notice or expla- nation — the department quietly added anadditional criterion. It deniedPITcred- it to a spouse who had creditable PIT ser- vice abroad on the grounds that she did not have existing FERS contributions to which her buyback credit could be added. Although no legal or regulatory basis was given for the denial, our understand- ing is that this requirement is an admin- istrative assumption employed by the Office of Personnel Management when combiningmilitary or other kinds of ser- vice credit with FERS credit to calculate a FERS benefit. (In the PIT buyback pro- gram, in contrast, PIT employees are pur- chasing FERS credit and not necessarily combining different kinds of service cred- it.) The intent of Congress was clear: to permit familymemberswithcreditablePIT service abroad during a certain period to purchase retirement credit. The new requirement usedby thedepartment, how- ever, denies credit to two kinds of buyback applicants, even though theybothmeet the criteria stated by Congress. First, the department’s approach will have the greatest effect on spouses—such as USAID spouses — who spent all or nearly all their careers overseas and who didnot have the opportunity to seek FERS employment. This would be particularly significant, as it is in the case of the denial mentioned above, where the spouse oth- erwise would have sufficient PIT service to qualify for a small annuity. Second, the approach precludes spouses from build- ing on the PIT service they earned if they cannot beginFERS employment before the PITbuybackdeadline ofAugust 2008. The PIT service will be lost to them for retire- ment purposes, even if they come back to theU.S. and earnFERS service credit after 2008. The department’s decision runs counter to congressional intent, basic fair- ness and appropriate administrative process. Rather than championing hard- earned spousal rights, the department has inexplicably limited them in a decision that gives no legal basis or explanation for the denial. The decision is nowbefore the Merit System Protection Board on appeal. o A F S A N E W S AFSA NEWS BRIEFS Request for Photos from Embassy Rangoon In August 2007, the U.S. embassy in Burma will move from its current chancery to a new embassy com- pound on the shores of Rangoon’s Inya Lake, the site of the former Washington Park housing com- pound. Washington Park’s Teak House was preserved and will be used by the embassy for hosting meetings, recep- tions, training sessions and other public events. Embassy Rangoon is seeking photographs documenting the U.S. role in Burma that can be displayed inside the new Teak House as a reminder to visitors of America’s positive contributions to Burma’s development, the rich cultural ties that existed in the past and what the country has lost in more recent years due to the military regime’s abuses and isolationism. If you have any photos to share, please contact Deputy Chief of Mission Karl Stoltz at kstoltz@state.gov. The embassy prefers to receive e-mailed digital photographs, but can also accept prints or negatives sent via surface mail to Karl Stoltz, U.S. Embassy Box B, APOAP 96546. Your contributions will help turn the Teak House into a permanent gallery showcasing our positive con- tributions to the people of Burma, and will help inspire those trying to bring Burma back into the family of open, democratic nations. o —Chargé d’Affaires Shari Villarosa, Embassy Rangoon STATE DEPARTMENT RESTRICTS APPLICATION OF LEGISLATION PIT Buyback Program Falls Short BY BONNIE BROWN, RETIREE COORDINATOR