SENSE OF CONGRESS ON EQUAL TREATMENT OF EFFECTIVE DATES FOR FUTURE COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENTS FOR MILITARY AND CIVILIAN RETIREES.

SEC. 632. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON EQUAL TREATMENT OF EFFECTIVE DATES FOR FUTURE COST-OF-LIVING ADJUSTMENTS FOR MILITARY AND CIVILIAN RETIREES. (a) Findings.— Congress makes the following findings: (1) Congress, in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, changed the effective dates for future cost-of-living adjustments for military retired pay and for Federal civilian retirement annuities, which (before that Act) were provided by law to be made effective on December 1 each year. (2) The timing, and the percentage of increase, of military and Federal civilian retirees’ cost-of-living adjustments have been linked for decades. (3) The effect of the enactment of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 was to abandon the longstanding congressional practice of treating military and Federal civilian retirees identically in matters related to cost-of-living adjustments. (b) Sense of Congress.— In light of the findings in subsection (a), it is the sense of Congress that— (1) as a matter of simple equity and fairness, it is imperative that cost-of-living adjustments in retirement benefits for military and Federal civilian retirees be returned to an identical schedule as soon as possible, but not later than January 1, 1999; (2) if after October 1, 1998, there is, by law, a difference between the date on which a cost-of-living adjustment for Federal civilian retirees takes effect and the date on which a cost-of-living adjustment for military retirees takes effect, then the difference in those effective dates should be eliminated by requiring that cost-of-living adjustments for both classes of retirees become effective on the earlier of the two dates; and (3) if after October 1, 1998, there is, by law, a difference between the first month for which a cost-of-living adjustment for civilian retirees is payable and the first month for which a cost-of-living adjustment for military retirees is payable, then the difference in the months for which those adjustments are first payable should be eliminated by requiring that the cost-of-living adjustments for both classes of retirees first become payable for the earlier of the two months.