Description:
H.R. 1297 would establish the service of certain former employees of Air America (or specified affiliated companies) between January 1, 1950, and December 31, 1976, as creditable toward a federal civil service retirement annuity under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). CBO estimates that the additional retirement annuity payments authorized by the bill would increase direct spending by $9 million over the 2021-2031 period. That estimate is based on data collected in 2014 by the Air America Association (the most recent data available) and was adjusted for expected mortality. CBO estimates that there are about 80 former Air America employees still living who would be eligible under H.R. 1297 to begin receiving a federal retirement benefit based on their Air America (or related) service, provided that the period of service meets the eligibility requirements for a CSRS benefit. (There are several tiers of eligibility based on age and years of service that can confer eligibility for a CSRS annuity; five years of service is the minimum requirement.) Using that data, CBO expects that the average person eligible to apply for a new CSRS benefit under H.R 1297 is now about 87 years of age and performed about nine years of Air America service at a salary of just under $30,000. CBO estimates that the average CSRS benefit would have been about $3,800 per year at the time of first retirement eligibility—about 25 years ago, on average. However, a new CSRS annuity that would begin under H.R. 1297 would incorporate the annual cost of living increases (which have averaged about 2 percent per year) that would have applied in the years since first eligibility. Including those annual adjustments, CBO estimates that the average new CSRS annuity under H.R. 1297 would be about $6,800 per year.
