S. 727Senate119th Congress (2025-2027)Passed Senate

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Retirement Technical Corrections Act

AI-Generated Summary

Updated December 17, 2025 at 6:32 AM UTC

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Retirement Technical Corrections Act fixes a problem where some CBP officers were wrongly denied enhanced retirement and annuity benefits. It grants those officers a minimum annuity and exempts them from mandatory retirement. The law applies to officers who received a tentative job offer before July 6, 2008 and began duty on or after that date. The Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Personnel Management must adjust and retroactively pay the benefits.

Key Provisions

Defines “Eligible Individual” as a person offered a CBP officer position before July 6, 2008 and who started duty on or after that date.
Eligible Individuals are treated as if they were serving on July 6, 2008 for retirement purposes, giving them the minimum annuity required by law and an exemption from mandatory retirement.
Within 120 days, DHS must list all Eligible Individuals, notify them of the annuity correction, and send necessary information to OPM.
OPM must correct the annuities, including retroactive adjustments for those who retired before the law’s enactment.
DHS may waive the maximum entry age requirement so Eligible Individuals can retire immediately with the corrected annuity.
The Government Accountability Office must review CBP hiring and retirement benefit practices and report its findings to relevant congressional committees within 18 months.

Legislative Activity

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8 earlier actions

HouseFloor Latest Action

Held at the desk.

December 17, 2025 • 10:21 AM

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SenateIntro Referral

Introduced in Senate

February 25, 2025

SenateIntro Referral

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

February 25, 2025

SenateCommittee

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

July 30, 2025

SenateCommittee

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Reported by Senator Paul with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. Without written report.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

November 3, 2025

SenateCalendars

Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 253.

November 3, 2025

SenateFloor

Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8765; text of amendment in the nature of a substitute: CR S8765)

December 16, 2025

SenateFloor

Message on Senate action sent to the House.

December 17, 2025

HouseFloor

Received in the House.

December 17, 2025 • 9:58 AM

HouseFloor

Held at the desk.

December 17, 2025 • 10:21 AM

Floor Debate

1 member

What members said about S. 727 on the floor

1 Democrat

Sen. Gary C. PetersD-MI · Dec 16, 2025

Mr. President, I am going to be asking shortly for unanimous consent on three bills. The first one is my bipartisan Disaster Assistance Simplification Act, which basically makes a commonsense change…

Mr. President, I am going to be asking shortly for unanimous consent on three bills.

The first one is my bipartisan Disaster Assistance Simplification Act, which basically makes a commonsense change to create a universal application for disaster survivors to more easily navigate the available Federal assistance after they have been hit by a natural disaster.

Currently, disaster survivors must complete separate and detailed applications, often with duplicative questions, which can take weeks and sometimes months to complete--something folks who are suffering from a natural disaster simply don't have the time for, and certainly they need immediate help. The separate processes can be overwhelming to disaster survivors who are just trying to piece their lives back together, causing many to give up on seeking the help they certainly are qualified for.

My bill would simply ask Federal Agencies to design one combined application and work together to share information amongst themselves, with the necessary data-sharing protections in place, to make the obstacles to overcoming a disaster a bit less onerous for folks who are suffering.

I urge my colleagues to join me in passing this bill, which passed through the Senate unanimously in the last Congress. I believe we must make this simple change so that when disaster strikes, disaster survivors can more easily access the assistance they certainly deserve.

The second bill is my bipartisan U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Retirement Technical Corrections Act, which ensures that a number of DHS law enforcement officers will receive the retirement benefits that they were promised--that they were promised--when starting their service almost 20 years ago.

In 2008, CBP incorrectly informed a group of newly hired officers that they would be eligible for an enhanced retirement benefit without having to hit a certain retirement age or reach 20 years of service to qualify. CBP realized this mistake a decade later--a full 10 years later--and in 2021, that group of officers abruptly lost access to the retirement package they were promised when they were hired.

This bill directs CBP, along with the Office of Personnel Management, to provide those affected officers the benefits they were promised when they accepted those positions.

None of us would stand for the government telling us after almost 20 years of service that we were not going to receive the benefits we were promised when we began those positions. We shouldn't expect these law enforcement officers to do so either.

This bill is necessary to fix an Agency error that upended the retirement plans of 1,400 officers, including 70 officers who live in my State of Michigan.

Last Congress, the Senate unanimously passed this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan bill once again.

The final bill, the third bill, is my bipartisan, commonsense bill, Helping Eliminate Limitations for Prompt Response and Recovery Act, and is going to repeal section 695 of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which limits the length of certain contracts in the aftermath of a disaster.

This bill aligns the Department of Homeland Security with more recent governmentwide rules. Matching DHS with governmentwide requirements will alleviate confusion and streamline the response to and recovery from disasters.

This is a straightforward, good-governance step that will benefit disaster survivors; therefore, I urge my colleagues to join me in passing this bill, which the Senate previously passed by unanimous consent in the 118th Congress.

Mr. President, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following bills en bloc: Calendar No. 252, S. 594; Calendar No. 253, S. 727; and Calendar No. 264, S. 861.

Mr. President, I further ask that the bills be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, all en bloc.

Bill Text

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Engrossed in SenateIssued December 16, 2025

119th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 727

AN ACT

To correct the inequitable denial of enhanced retirement and annuity benefits to certain U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Retirement Technical Corrections Act.

Adjustment related to transition rules

(a)

Defined term

In this section the term Eligible Individual means any individual who—

(1)

received a tentative offer of employment as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer before July 6, 2008; and

(2)

entered into duty as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer on or after July 6, 2008, as a result of an offer described in paragraph (1).

(b)

Treatment of Eligible Individuals

Eligible Individuals—

(1)

are considered to be individuals serving as U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers on July 6, 2008, for purposes of section 535(e) of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008 (division E of Public Law 110–161; 121 Stat. 1844); and

(2)

are entitled to—

(A)

the minimum annuity amount required under section 535(e)(2)(C) of such Act; and

(B)

an exemption from mandatory retirement otherwise required under section 8425(b)(1) of title 5, United States Code.

(c)

Implementation

(1)

Submission of information

Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall—

(A)

create a list of all Eligible Individuals;

(B)

notify each Eligible Individual of the annuity correction described in subsection (b); and

(C)

provide the Director of the Office of Personnel Management with all of the information that is necessary for making annuity corrections with respect to Eligible Individuals.

(2)

Completion of annuity correction

After receiving the information described in paragraph (1)(C), the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall make the annuity correction described in subsection (b) with respect to each Eligible Individual, including a retroactive annuity adjustment for Eligible Individuals who retired before the date of the enactment of this Act.

(d)

Waivers and guidance

(1)

Waivers

The Secretary of Homeland Security may retroactively waive the maximum entry age requirement under 3307(g) of title 5, United States Code, to the extent necessary, to ensure that each Eligible Individual is eligible for immediate retirement with the annuity correction described in subsection (b).

(2)

Guidance

The Director of the Office of Personnel Management, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall issue appropriate guidance to assist in the implementation of the annuity correction described in subsection (b).

(e)

Government Accountability Office

The Comptroller General of the United States—

(1)

shall review U.S. Customs and Border Protection (referred to in this subsection as CBP) hiring practices, policies, and procedures related to eligibility for enhanced retirement benefits referred to in this section by assessing—

(A)

the process for determining whether an employee qualifies for such benefits, including considering any potential factors that would make an employee ineligible for such enhanced retirement benefits;

(B)

the internal controls used by CBP to ensure that all eligible employees, and only eligible employees, receive such enhanced retirement benefits;

(C)

the policies regarding the use of employees’ personnel files to ensure compliance with current laws governing retirement benefits; and

(D)

the adequacy of the training provided to CBP senior executives regarding human resources and hiring practices at CBP; and

(2)

not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, shall submit a report that describes the results of the review conducted pursuant to paragraph (1) to—

(A)

the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate;

(B)

the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives; and

(C)

the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives.

Passed the Senate December 16, 2025.

Secretary