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The bill contains a version of the “no pensions for Congressional felons” reform that NTU and almost two dozen other groups asked for earlier this year:
Title III: Congressional Pension Accountability - Congressional Pension Accountability Act - (Sec. 302) Prohibits a Member of Congress, or a survivor or beneficiary, from receiving an annuity or retired pay if such Member is: (1) convicted of bribery of public officials and witnesses, conspiracy either to commit any offense against the United States or to defraud the United States, perjury, or subornation of perjury; or (2) indicted, or has outstanding charges for such offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and willfully remains outside the United States, or its territories and possessions including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, for more than one year with knowledge of the indictment or charges, as the case may be.From my initial reading, it looks like Members will be stripped of their Congressional pension earnings for certain felonies (e.g., bribery of public officials and witnesses) that are directly related to their duties as a Member. The crime also must occur while the Member is still in office. Past offenders will not be affected, so criminals like “Duke" Cunningham and Dan Rostenkowski will keep their pensions.
Requires a refund of annuity contributions and deposits, excluding interest earned, to a convicted individual.
This falls short of our demand to “automatically deny taxpayer-funded retirement benefits to a Representative or Senator convicted of any felony, during or after Congressional service.” Still, the new rules contained in S. 1 are an improvement over current law.