NAAUSA is Working to Provide AUSAs the Same Retirement Benefits as Other Members of the Federal Law Enforcement Community
WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please contact your Member of the House of Representatives and both of your Senators IMMEDIATELY to urge her or him to become cosponsors of H.R. 4091 and S. 2786, "The Enhanced Restitution Enforcement and Equitable Retirement Treatment Act of 2009." (To find out who your House Member is, click here. To find out the contact information for your Senators, click here.)
Although the House and Senate bills have different numbers they are identical. To read the House bill, click here. To read the Senate bill, click here.
CALL YOUR HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE AND YOUR SENATORS TODAY. The call will take no more than 90 seconds. If you are an AUSA, place the call from your personal cell phone or home phone. DO NOT USE A DOJ PHONE. And double or triple the number of calls to your Representative by having your spouse, significant other, neighbors, etc. make a call too. Ask to be connected to your Representative's office and when the Representative's office answers. Tell the person taking the call that:
-- You are a constituent of the Congressman/Congresswomen
-- You are calling to urge the Congressman/Congresswomen to become a cosponsor H.R. 4091, the "Enhanced Financial Restitution and Equitable Retirement Treatment Act of 2009." When calling your Senators, urge them to cosponsor S. 2786.
-- The bipartisan legislation will assist the Department of Justice to collect judgments and restitution and provide fairness in the retirement benefits of Assistant US Attorneys.
-- Thank the Congressman for his/her support.
Again, this call will take only 90 seconds. Please urge all of your colleagues to make calls as well.
Before NAAUSA's retirement legislation can be considered by the 435 members of the U.S House of Representatives or the 100 members of the Senate, it must be approved by the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. AUSAs who reside in the districts of these House Members, or in the states of these Senators, MUST contact them and ask them to cosponor H.R. 4091. If there is no grassroots campaign by all AUSAs there is almost no chance Congress will pass NAAUSA's retirement legislation.
To see the current list of House cosponsors of H.R. 4091, click here.
All of the work done over the years to move AUSA retirement legislation will be in vain unless NAAUSA members and their spouses and their relatives take a very active role in contacting their lawmakers to urge them to support the legislation. Congress is now dealing with many large controversial issues. AUSA retirement legislation will be ignored unless Congressional lawmakers hear from thousands of AUSAs and others affected by improved AUSA retirement.
The Fact Sheet on H.R. 4091 and S. 2786 follows:
“Enhanced Restitution Enforcement and Equitable Retirement Treatment Act of 2009”
Title I - Debt Collection Reform
• United States Attorney Offices are responsible for criminal and civil debt collection efforts that result in billions of dollars a year that generate funds for federal agencies, the Department of Justice and the victims of crime. From FY 2003 to FY 2006, the amount collected has averaged over $4 billion a year, more than twice the total budget of all US Attorney Offices. However, as GAO has repeatedly pointed out, there are still tens billions of dollars left to be recovered, sums not collected due to inefficiencies in the law and competing priorities.
- Title I of the legislation builds upon current law by imposing late fees and offsets on debts owed and by increasing special assessment to encourage the prompt payment of civil and criminal debts owed the U.S. government and the victims of crime. The following refinements to existing practices are included in Title I.
- The legislation creates an Enhanced Financial Recovery Fund that:
1. Enhances DOJ’s ability to collect criminal and civil debts owed to the U.S. and the victims of crime by providing $20 million a year for DOJ collection resources
2. Associates the costs of collection with the users
3. Addresses GAO criticism that US Attorney Offices are not aggressively enough collecting outstanding civil and criminal debts
4. Provides at least $832 million in new funds to DOJ from FY09 to FY14
Late fees would be added to the debtor’s obligation to defray the cost of collection and encourage prompt payment. Offsets would be subtracted from the amount due the federal agency to defray the cost of collection.
- 5% Criminal Late Fee – Imposes a 5% late fee on criminal debtors who do not pay fines and restitution within 15 days of judgment.
- 5% Civil Late Fee – Imposes a 5% late fee on civil debtors who do not pay civil debts within 15 days of judgment. Federal agencies are still entitled to 100% of principle and interest. This would replace the 10% civil enforcement late fee, which only applies to selected actions.
- Increase Civil Offset to 5% - Adds 2% to the current 3% of civil recoveries now paid to the DOJ Working Capital Fund. The additional 2% would go into the Enhanced Financial Recovery Fund.
- 5% Offset on Federal Restitution – The 5% offset on federal restitution would match the 5% civil offset and apply only to criminal judgments where restitution is due a federal agency.
- Increased Special Assessments – Special assessments, which are collected before fines and restitutions, would be increased in most cases from $100 to $200.
Assistant United States Attorney Retirement
- Title II, the which improves the retirement benefit of AUSAs and has received bi-partisan support as stand-alone legislation in the past, strengthens the Department of Justice’s ability to pursue justice and win critical cases through the increased retention of skilled, experienced federal prosecutors.
- The legislation confronts the exodus of top-flight prosecutors from the Department of Justice, which harms the Department’s ability to pursue the prosecution of terrorists, gang leaders, drug kingpins, intellectual pirates, and white collar criminals. The average line AUSA remains with DOJ for only 11 years, a critical loss of litigation skill and experience by the government.
- DOJ internal studies and surveys have identified the AUSA retention rate as a significant problem and the enhancement of the AUSA retirement benefit as the foremost remedy. A report of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee concluded: “Clearly, career AUSAs should be authorized to receive retirement benefits afforded all of the other members of the federal law enforcement community since the majority of AUSA responsibilities relate to the investigation, apprehension or detention of individuals suspected or convicted of criminal laws of the United States.
- The legislation also assists DOJ In the short-term in its current effort to realign the skillbase of the AUSA workforce of 5,600 AUSAs in 93 U.S. Attorney Offices. Recent DOJ workforce realignment efforts have been only modestly successful, with cash incentive retirement offers prompting limited response among eligible AUSAs.
- The legislation provides to AUSAs the same retirement benefit that law enforcement officers receive: for those under FERS, a basic annuity of 34% of salary after 20 years of service at age 57 (LEOs can retire at age 50)+; and for those under CSRS, an annuity of 50% of salary, with no social security benefits, after 20 years of service at age 57. AUSAs under FERS currently receive a basic annuity of 20% of salary after 20 years of service at age 60; those under CSRS receive an annuity of 36.25% of salary, with no social security benefits, after 20 years of service at age 60.
- Implementation of the law would be staggered over a two-year period following enactment to permit increased collections to grow in the Enhanced Recovery Fund to satisfy the cost to DOJ of the AUSA retirement obligation.
- A preliminary CBO estimate projects the cost of the legislation to be $944 million over 10 years, or $94 million a year. (Note: The cost may be significantly less, due to lower expected elections of the benefit by AUSAs than are assumed by CBO.)
110th Congress Actions
In the last Congress, the House and Senate bills to improve AUSA retirement benefits (H.R. 2878 and S. 1729) remained in their respective committees. A House hearing was held in November, 2007, resulting in a revised proposal responding to questions and concerns raised at the hearing, and promoted by NAAUSA. The revised bill would continue to provide for retirement benefits on par with those received by law enforcement officers, and financed through monies raised through increased fines and other incentives to promote the payment of unpaid judgments.
NAAUSA Responds to Objections on AUSA Retirement Legislation
Department of Justice bureaucrats and congressional staff have raised a number of objections to NAAUSA's legislation to provide AUSAs with the same retirement benefits enjoyed by everyone else in the federal law enforcement community. NAAUSA's responses to these objections refute opponents of the AUSA retirement legislation.
What's the Difference Between Current AUSA Retrement and Law Enforcement Retirement Benefits?
Many AUSAs ask why NAAUSA is pursuing law enforcement retirement benefits. A simple comparison of how benefits are calculated under the two systems explains why.
Who Gets Law Enforcement Retirement Benefits?
A report from the Office of Personnel Management detailed the positions eligible for law enforcement benefits, including cooks and gardeners in the Bureau of Prisons!
Law Enforcement Retirement Benefits: Who Qualifies and Why?
In preparation for a 1999 hearing before the House Civil Service Subcommittee, Committee on Government Affairs on NAAUSA's retirement legislation and other law enforcement retirement benefits, the staff prepared a background paper on law enforcement retirement benefits.
1989 Report of the AUSA Career Retention Committee of the AGAC
The first concerted effort to provide law enforcement retirement benefits to AUSAs was a 1988-1989 study by the AUSA Career Retention Committee of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee. The final report, which was based on a survey of all AUSAs, of the committee recommended that AUSAs receive the same retirement benefits as other members of the law enforcement community.
