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DUAL COVERAGE OF PENSION SYSTEMS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

There is a general rule (mainly by interpretation) that no person may belong to more than one Federal pension system at the same time. A Federal pension system is one maintained for Federal employees, there being several, the most extensive of which, of course, is the Civil Service retirement system. In the statutes underlying this system, the relevant language reads as follows:

"This chapter i.e. the Civil Service Retirement Act shall apply to all officers and employees in or under the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the United States Government, and to all officers and employees of the municipal government of the District of Columbia, except elective officers in the executive branch of the Government: Provided, That this chapter shall not apply to such officer or employee of the United States or of the municipal government of the District of Columbia subject to another retirement system for such officers and employees of such governments...."
5 U.S.C.A., Sec. 693(a)

In general, the way in which the several Federal pension systems operate is outlined in an opinion of the Attorney General in connection with the Railroad Retirement Act of 1934. In that act, unlike the subsequent Railroad Retirement Acts, the employees of the Railroad Retirement Board were made subject to the pension system for railroad workers. The Attorney General held that:

"Employees of the Railroad Retirement Board are not subject to the provisions of this chapter Civil Service Retirement Act, but they may, through continuous service and unnecessary transfers and reinstatements, retain their rights hereunder in that they will again become subject to its provisions upon subsequent transfers from the Board to other Government service." 38 Op. Atty. Gen., 136 (1934)

In other words, while working for the Railroad Retirement Board an employee was subject to the Railroad Retirement system; if he transferred, say, to the Interstate Commerce Commission, he would then become subject to the Civil Service retirement system. And if he went from there into the foreign service, he became subject to the retirement system for foreign service officers; that is, he would leave the Civil Service retirement and go into the third system. Upon retirement, his annuity would be the sum of the annuity credits in each of the three systems.

In addition to the Federal pension systems there are, of course, the retirement systems created by the Railroad Retirement Act and by Title II of the Social Security Act. These systems are not Federal pensions systems in the ordinary sense. They are doubtless many cases every day in which individuals are covered under two systems, though with respect to different employments. For example, during the war the Railway Express Agency in Chicago was continuously shorthanded. A number of employees of the Railroad Retirement Board and of other Federal agencies used to work, each day, four hours or so at the Express Agency after government hours. With respect to compensation from the Railroad Retirement Board, a Federal agency, these individuals were subject to the Civil