Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene\u2019s, R-Ga., upcoming resignation from Congress set off a series of questions and misinformation about what health care and pension benefits lawmakers receive once they leave public service.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The system is a bit complex and determined by when a lawmaker entered Congress as well as how long they stayed. Members must serve at least five years, putting Greene just over the eligibility line\u00a0when she officially steps aside<\/a>\u00a0in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n Members of Congress elected after 1984 are covered under the Federal Employees\u2019 Retirement System. The four House lawmakers and one senator elected before then may be under the Civil Service Retirement System, so their benefit may be calculated differently than that of their colleagues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service explains in a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0about lawmakers\u2019 retirement benefits that \u201cpensions, like those of other federal employees, are financed through a combination of employee and employer contributions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUnder both CSRS and FERS, Members of Congress are eligible for a pension at the age of 62 if they have completed at least 5 years of service,\u201d the report states. \u201cMembers are eligible for a pension at age 50 if they have completed 20 years of service, or at any age after completing 25 years of service. The amount of the pension depends on length of service (as measured in months) and the average of the highest three years of salary. By law, the starting amount of a Member\u2019s retirement annuity may not exceed 80% of his or her final salary.\u201d<\/p>\n All members also must pay into Social Security, and how much in taxes they pay and benefits they receive are the same as for all beneficiaries.<\/p>\n Members of Congress, except for leadership, are paid $174,000 a year.<\/p>\n Greene, who began her congressional career on Jan. 3, 2021, will be just over the five-year requirement when she formally resigns on Jan. 5.\u00a0<\/p>\n Greene will receive about $8,700 in pension benefits per year for the rest of her life, after she turns 62. She is now 51.<\/p>\n Former U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was first sworn in on June 2, 1987, after winning a special election, will receive considerably more in pension benefits given that she was a member for decades longer than Greene and had a higher salary during her time in leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n The National Taxpayers Union Foundation\u00a0expects<\/a>\u00a0Pelosi will receive an annual pension of $107,860 after she retires in January 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n Health insurance benefits<\/strong><\/p>\n Members of Congress who retire or resign are eligible to purchase health insurance from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program as long as they had health insurance from the District of Columbia\u2019s Affordable Care Act marketplace \u201cfor the five years of service immediately prior to retirement,\u201d according to a different CRS\u00a0report<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n While in Congress, lawmakers are eligible to have some of their health coverage offset by their employer \u2014 the federal government \u2014 as long as they purchase it through the D.C. marketplace, known as DC Health Link. Like others in the states, it was created by the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n As with group health insurance plans, the amount subsidized by the federal government depends on whether a lawmaker selects a health plan that covers themselves or themselves plus eligible family members.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene\u2019s, R-Ga., upcoming resignation from Congress set off a series of questions and misinformation about…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":407912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,327,192231,41271,192232,9701,255,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-407911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-congress","10":"tag-csrs","11":"tag-federal-employees-retirement-system","12":"tag-fers","13":"tag-marjorie-taylor-greene","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115620698097921100","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}