§4071h General and Administrative Provisions

Summary

The Secretary of State must run the Foreign Service Pension System, except for Thrift Savings Plan matters in subchapters III and VII of chapter 84 of title 5. The Secretary of State can carry out the duties and powers that the Office of Personnel Management or its Director has under chapter 84 and can make rules for the system. Decisions that would be appealed to the Merit Systems Protection Board instead go to the Foreign Service Grievance Board. Disability decisions must follow the standards in section 4048, but without the exclusion for vicious habits, intemperance, or willful misconduct, and they are reviewed the same way as in that section. At least every 5 years, the Secretary of the Treasury must review the pension system’s finances and tell the Secretary of State the normal cost, the supplemental liability, and how much money is needed to fund the system.