Background on the Metropolitan Police Department and Fire Service Act of 2007

HR 2414


Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) recently introduced H.R. 2414 which
would reduce the minimum number of years D.C. police and firefighters are
required to serve in order to get their fair share of long term annuity benefits
due from the federal government.  Federal law divides the responsibility for
paying the District's first responders between the federal government and the
city.  H.R. 2414 is necessary to conform the federal formula for calculating
pensions, under which officers and firefighters must serve a minimum of 25
years, to the new 20 year threshold adopted by the District government earlier
this year.

In 1999 the D.C. City Council considered legislation that would entitle police
and fire fighters to have their longevity premiums treated as pay for the
purposes of calculating their annuities.  It set the minimum to 20 years of
service, but was later increased to 25 years at the request of then Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey. 
He was concerned that hundreds of longtime police officers who were eligible to retire at 20 years
might leave in droves, draining the department of too many experienced officers. 
Now that the timeframe for these retirees has passed and the District has reset
the eligibility to 20 years, Norton's bill would bring the federal government in
line, at the request of the first responders organizations.

H.R. 2414, which has the full support of the DC police and fire fighters, is
consistent with what occurred in 2000.  At that time, the District first changed
the retirement plan for Metropolitan Police Department to permit service
longevity payments to be considered part of the basic compensation used to
calculate the annuities.  Congress then followed suit in 2001 by making the
adjustment in the federal government's share of the payments, covering service
prior to July 1997.  Congress possesses the precedent to enact adjustments in
pensions for officers and firefighters who are our nation's first responders.  As noted by
Congresswoman Norton, "The challenges first responders face and their added
burdens since 9/11 only add to the obligation to give these dedicated men and
women all that they have earned for their important routine and special duties
for serving and protecting the federal enclave, D.C. residents and visitors to
the nation's capital."

The police and fire fighters understood the public safety concerns raised by
Chief Ramsey in 1999 that delayed the equitable distribution of this benefit to
those with less than 25 years of service.  Serving public safety is their finest
tradition.  Now that the safety of the public has been addressed, it is time to
address the denial of this benefit to men and women who served with honor and
retired with 20 years of public service.

 

 

Model Constituent Letter

(To be sent to your congressional representative as soon a possible) 

To save you from, typing the below letter, we have set it up so you can edit it in MS Word.  For those members that are not familiar with MS Word the following should help. If you are reading this document, you already have it in MS Word.  Print the document out as is. Then save it on your hard drive.  The date will automatically change to the date you open the letter.  In the salutation, there are words in italics that need to be replaced with actual information.  Place your cursor in front of the first letter and then tap the delete key (Del) until it is erased.  Next, hold the control key (Ctl) down and press the “I” key (once).  That will remove the italics.  Now type in the information needed. Repeat this for all the salutation italics.  Once you have finished, you need to get rid of this paragraph and fit this letter onto one page.  To do this, take your cursor and move it to the top of the page in front of the letter M in the word Model. Hold the shift key down, release the mouse button and move the cursor to the end of this paragraph and after the last letter in red CUT.  Left click you mouse.  This paragraph will become highlighted in black.  Tap the delete (Del) key and this paragraph will disappear moving the letter up and on one page.  CUT

  

 June 13, 2007
The Honorable NAME, Congressman
STATE NAME State District Number Congressional District
Address

City, State, Zip Code
Telephone

Fax

RE: Support for HR 2414

Dear Congressman Last Name,

I write to urge you, as my representative, to support HR 2414 as introduced by D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton on May 21, 2007.  This bill will address a harm done to certain retired D.C. Police Officer and Fire Fighters in the interest of a public safety concern that has now passed. 

The District passed a bill in 1999 that provided that retired police officers and fire fighters would have their Longevity Premiums earned during the active service included in their pensions if they had 25 years of credible service.  The D.C. bill originally provided that the retirees would have to serve just 20 years to qualify for this benefit.  That would have given them the same treatment afforded current and future fire fighters who were getting this benefit after serving 20 years with the D.C. Fire Department.  This year the District passed a law lowering the minimum years of service for retirees to 20 years, as originally provided in the 1999 bill.

Then Chief of Police Charles Ramsey asked that the bill be amended to raise the years of service to 25 because he was concerned that some three hundred or so active members of the MPD might retire en masse if they were to enjoy this improvement in their retirement.  The City Council agreed and revised the minimum years of service to 25.  Chief Ramsey withdrew his objections later.  The pool of affected active duty officers shrunk as they reached 25 years of service over the years following the 1999 bill.  Today, the public safety concerns expressed by Chief Ramsey no longer exist.

HR 2414 will lower the Federal Government’s minimum years of service to 20.  This will allow the Treasury to pay the federal portion of their annuities using the same formula applied by the District government.  The Congress took this same action in 2000 when the District passed the 1999 legislation.

Please become a co-sponsor to this important legislation that is designed to provide equitable treatment for retired First Responders who have waited for this unfairness to be addressed out of our continuing respect for public safety.

 

Sincerely,