Lawmakers have introduced bills that would ensure Civil Service Retirement System employees who work part-time at the end of their careers are paid their full annuities.

Due to a faulty 1986 law, CSRS employees who are working part-time at the end of their careers find their pre-1986 service incorrectly calculated as part-time service. This reduces the annual annuities of some CSRS retirees by hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars each year.

The bills, introduced Feb. 25 by Sens. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., would make sure full-time service is calculated correctly and only part-time service is prorated.

Correcting the problem for all current and future retirees could cost the government about $2.1 billion. Lawmakers balked at the price tag in 2007, and rewrote a previous version of the bill, HR 2780, so only future retirees would have their annuities correctly calculated.

Unions objected to the change, and the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association withdrew its support for the bill, which did not pass the House.