Title 5 — Government Organization and EmployeesRelease 119-73
§8461 Authority of the Office of Personnel Management
Title 5 › Part PART III— - EMPLOYEES › Subpart Subpart G— - Insurance and Annuities › Chapter CHAPTER 84— - FEDERAL EMPLOYEES’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER VI— - GENERAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS › § 8461
Summary
The Office of Personnel Management (the Office) must pay all benefits that fall under subchapters II, IV, V, or VI from the Fund. The Office must run the parts of this law that no other board, officer, or agency is told to run. The Office decides and settles all claims it handles. It also decides questions about disability and dependency for people it covers. Those disability and dependency decisions are usually final. The Office can order medical or other exams when needed and may stop or refuse annuity payments if a person refuses an exam. The Office sets fees for outside doctors who do exams under subchapter V, and those fees and travel costs come from the Office’s administration money. The Office may make rules to carry out its duties. People can appeal Office actions to the Merit Systems Protection Board under the Board’s procedures. But if the Office found a person partly or fully disabled because of a mental condition based on an agency’s application for disability retirement under section 8451, then the appeal follows the rules in section 7701 and the Board’s decision can be reviewed by a court under section 7703. Agencies must give the Director the information the Director needs, and the Director must protect that information. When computing “actuarial equivalence,” the Office must use the same economic assumptions it last used for the System’s normal-cost percentage. For Central Intelligence Agency employees, the Director of Central Intelligence may handle many benefit tasks (like determining benefits, keeping records, computing benefits, collecting deposits, and making disbursements) with OPM and the Thrift Board providing reimbursable help. Intelligence-related information must be protected, and the Director of Central Intelligence must make regulations and let OPM audit Fund disbursements and send those regulations to the congressional intelligence committees before they take effect. The Office also has rules for workers who move to or from certain nonappropriated fund jobs without a break in service of more than 1 year.
Full Legal Text
Title 5, §8461
Government Organization and Employees — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)The Office shall pay all benefits that are payable under subchapter II, IV, V, or VI of this chapter from the Fund.
(b)The Office shall administer all provisions of this chapter not specifically required to be administered by the Board, the Executive Director, the Secretary of Labor, or any other officer or agency.
(c)The Office shall adjudicate all claims under the provisions of this chapter administered by the Office.
(d)The Office shall determine questions of disability and dependency arising under the provisions of this chapter administered by the Office. Except to the extent provided under subsection (e), the decisions of the Office concerning these matters are final and conclusive and are not subject to review. The Office may direct at any time such medical or other examinations as it considers necessary to determine the facts concerning disability or dependency of an individual receiving or applying for annuity under the provisions of this chapter administered by the Office. The Office may suspend or deny annuity for failure to submit to examination.
(e)(1)Subject to paragraph (2), an administrative action or order affecting the rights or interests of an individual or of the United States under the provisions of this chapter administered by the Office may be appealed to the Merit Systems Protection Board under procedures prescribed by the Board.
(2)In the case of any individual found by the Office to be disabled in whole or in part on the basis of the individual’s mental condition, and that finding was made pursuant to an application by an agency for purposes of disability retirement under section 8451, the procedures under section 7701 shall apply and the decision of the Board shall be subject to judicial review under section 7703.
(f)The Office shall fix the fees for examinations made under subchapter V of this chapter by physicians or surgeons who are not medical officers of the United States. The fees and reasonable traveling and other expenses incurred in connection with the examinations are paid from appropriations for the cost of administering the provisions of this chapter administered by the Office.
(g)The Office may prescribe regulations to carry out the provisions of this chapter administered by the Office.
(h)(1)Each Government agency shall furnish the Director with such information as the Director determines necessary in order to administer this chapter.
(2)The Director, in consultation with the officials from whom such information is requested, shall establish (by regulation or otherwise) such safeguards as are necessary to ensure that information made available under this subsection is used only for the purpose authorized.
(i)In making a determination of “actuarial equivalence” under this chapter, the economic assumptions used shall be the same as the economic assumptions most recently used by the Office (before the determination of actuarial equivalence involved) in determining the normal-cost percentage of the System.
(j)(1)Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Director of Central Intelligence shall, in a manner consistent with the administration of this chapter by the Office, and to the extent considered appropriate by the Director of Central Intelligence—
(A)determine entitlement to benefits under this chapter based on the service of employees of the Central Intelligence Agency;
(B)maintain records relating to the service of such employees;
(C)compute benefits under this chapter based on the service of such employees;
(D)collect deposits to the Fund made by such employees, their spouses, their former spouses, and their survivors;
(E)authorize and direct disbursements from the Fund to the extent based on service of such employees; and
(F)perform such other functions under this chapter (other than under subchapters III and VII of this chapter) with respect to employees of the Central Intelligence Agency as the Director of Central Intelligence, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, determines to be appropriate.
(2)The Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall furnish such information and, on a reimbursable basis, such services to the Director of Central Intelligence as the Director of Central Intelligence requests to carry out paragraph (1).
(k)(1)The Director of Central Intelligence, in consultation with the Executive Director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, may—
(A)maintain exclusive records relating to elections, contributions, and accounts under the Thrift Savings Plan provided in subchapter III of this chapter in the case of employees of the Central Intelligence Agency;
(B)provide that contributions by, or on behalf of, such employees to the Thrift Savings Plan be accounted for by such Executive Director in aggregate amounts;
(C)make the necessary disbursements from, and the necessary allocations of earnings, losses, and charges to, individual accounts of such employees under the Thrift Savings Plan; and
(D)perform such other functions under subchapters III and VII of this chapter (but not including investing sums in the Thrift Savings Fund) with respect to employees of the Central Intelligence Agency as the Director of Central Intelligence, in consultation with the Executive Director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, determines to be appropriate.
(2)The Executive Director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board may not exercise authority under this chapter in the case of employees of the Central Intelligence Agency to the extent that the Director of Central Intelligence exercises authority provided in paragraph (1).
(3)The Executive Director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board shall furnish such information and, on a reimbursable basis, such services to the Director of Central Intelligence as the Director of Central Intelligence determines necessary to carry out this subsection.
(l)Subsection (h)(1), and section 8439(b) and 8474(c)(4), shall be applied with respect to information relating to employees of the Central Intelligence Agency in a manner that protects intelligence sources, methods, and activities.
(m)(1)The Director of Central Intelligence, in consultation with the Director of the Office of Personnel Management and the Executive Director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, shall by regulation prescribe appropriate procedures to carry out subsections (j), (k), and (l).
(2)The regulations shall provide procedures for the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to inspect and audit disbursements from the Fund under this chapter.
(3)The Director of Central Intelligence shall submit the regulations prescribed under paragraph (1) to the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives before the regulations take effect.
(n)(1)Under regulations prescribed by the Office, an employee who—
(A)has not previously made an election under this subsection or had an opportunity to make an election under this paragraph; and
(B)moves, without a break in service of more than 1 year, to employment in a nonappropriated fund instrumentality of the Department of Defense or the Coast Guard, respectively, described in section 2105(c),
(2)Under regulations prescribed by the Office, an employee of a nonappropriated fund instrumentality of the Department of Defense or the Coast Guard described in section 2105(c), who—
(A)has not previously made an election under this subsection or had an opportunity to make an election under this paragraph;
(B)is a participant in a retirement system established for employees described in section 2105(c);
(C)moves, without a break in service of more than 1 year, to a position that is not described by section 2105(c); and
(D)is not eligible to make an election under section 8347(q),
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Amendments
2001—Subsec. (n)(1). Pub. L. 107–107, § 1131(b)(1), inserted “and” at end of subpar. (A), redesignated subpar. (C) as (B), and struck out former subpar. (B) which read as follows: “has 5 or more years of civilian service creditable under this chapter; and”. Subsec. (n)(2)(B). Pub. L. 107–107, § 1131(b)(2), struck out “vested” before “participant in a retirement system” and struck out “, as the term ‘vested participant’ is defined by such system” before semicolon at end. 1996—Subsec. (n)(1). Pub. L. 104–106, § 1043(a)(2)(A), struck out “of the Department of Defense or the Coast Guard” after “an employee” in introductory provisions and substituted “1 year” for “3 days” in subpar. (C). Subsec. (n)(2)(C). Pub. L. 104–106, § 1043(a)(2)(B), substituted “1 year” for “3 days” and struck out “in the Department of Defense or the Coast Guard, respectively,” after “to a position”. 1992—Subsec. (n)(1)(A), (2)(A). Pub. L. 102–378, § 2(71)(A), amended subpars. (A) generally. Prior to amendment, subpars. (A) read as follows: “has not previously made or had an opportunity to make an election under this subsection;”. Subsec. (n)(2)(D). Pub. L. 102–378, § 2(71)(B), substituted “8347(q)” for “8347(p)”. 1990—Subsec. (n). Pub. L. 101–508 added subsec. (n). 1986—Subsec. (m)(2). Pub. L. 99–556 struck out “, and from the Thrift Savings Fund,” after “from the Fund”.
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Change of Name
Reference to the Director of Central Intelligence or the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Director’s capacity as the head of the intelligence community deemed to be a reference to the Director of National Intelligence. Reference to the Director of Central Intelligence or the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Director’s capacity as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency deemed to be a reference to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. See section 1081(a), (b) of Pub. L. 108–458, set out as a note under section 3001 of Title 50, War and National Defense.
Effective Date
of 1996 AmendmentFor
Effective Date
of
Amendments
by Pub. L. 104–106, see
Effective Date
of 1996 Amendment note below.
Effective Date
of 1992 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 102–378 effective Nov. 5, 1990, see section 9(b)(6) of Pub. L. 102–378, set out as a note under section 6303 of this title.
Effective Date
of 1990 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 101–508 applicable with respect to any individual who, on or after Jan. 1, 1987, moves from employment in nonappropriated fund instrumentality of Department of Defense or Coast Guard, that is described in section 2105(c) of this title, to employment in Department or Coast Guard, that is not described in section 2105(c), or who moves from employment in Department or Coast Guard, that is not described in section 2105(c), to employment in nonappropriated fund instrumentality of Department or Coast Guard, that is described in section 2105(c), see section 7202(m)(1) of Pub. L. 101–508, set out as a note under section 2105 of this title.
Effective Date
of 1996 AmendmentFor provisions relating to promulgation of
Regulations
necessary to carry out amendment by Pub. L. 104–106, and
Effective Date
of such amendment in connection with those
Regulations
, see section 1043(b), (c) of Pub. L. 104–106, set out as a note under section 8347 of this title.
Transfer of Functions
For transfer of authorities, functions, personnel, and assets of the Coast Guard, including the authorities and functions of the Secretary of Transportation relating thereto, to the Department of Homeland Security, and for treatment of related references, see section 468(b), 551(d), 552(d), and 557 of Title 6, Domestic Security, and the Department of Homeland Security Reorganization Plan of November 25, 2002, as modified, set out as a note under section 542 of Title 6. Treatment of Individuals Electing To Remain Subject to Their Former Retirement SystemFor provisions relating to the deductions and contributions required with respect to individuals electing under section 8347(q) or 8461(n) of this title to remain covered under subchapter III of chapter 83 of this title, chapter 84 of this title, or a retirement system for employees described in section 2105(c) of this title, see section 7202(n) of Pub. L. 101–508, set out as a note under section 2105 of this title.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
5 U.S.C. § 8461
Title 5 — Government Organization and Employees
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73