§ 1-701 — Findings; purpose.

(a) The Congress finds that the retirement benefits authorized by various acts of Congress for the police officers, fire fighters, teachers, and judges of the District of Columbia have not been financed on an actuarially sound basis. Neither federal payments to the District nor District of Columbia appropriations have taken into account the long-term financial requirements of the District’s retirement programs. As a result, the annual budget cost to the District of Columbia for annuities and refunds of deductions is growing at a rapid rate, and, in the case of the retirement program for police officers and fire fighters, is predicted to exceed the cost of salaries for active police officers and fire fighters by the year 2000.

(b) It is the purpose of this chapter:

(1) To establish separate retirement Funds for police officers and fire fighters, for teachers, and for judges of the District of Columbia;

(2) To establish a Retirement Board with responsibility for managing these Funds;

(3) To require that these Funds be managed on an actuarially sound basis in order to provide proper financing for the benefits to which the District’s retired police officers, fire fighters, teachers, and judges are entitled;

(4) To require that the Retirement Board comply with reporting and disclosure requirements similar to those imposed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974; and

(5) To provide for federal payments to these Funds to help finance, in part, the liabilities for retirement benefits incurred by the District of Columbia prior to the establishment of self-government under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.

Legislative History

Nov. 17, 1979, 93 Stat. 866, Pub. L. 96-122, § 101