Two bills that would end the cap on cost-of-living adjustments for Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) annuities, H.R. 491 in the House and S. 624 in the Senate, have been in committee since they were introduced in early 2025. Both carry the short title Equal COLA Act and would put FERS adjustments on the same footing as those paid under the Civil Service Retirement System. Neither has become law, so the cap remains in effect.
The official bill-status records list every recorded step a measure has taken. For these two proposals the list is short: introduction, referral to a committee, and for the House bill one change of first sponsor.
H.R. 491 and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
H.R. 491 was introduced on January 16, 2025, by Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-VA-11) and referred the same day to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, according to the Government Publishing Office’s status file for the bill. The latest recorded action is dated September 16, 2025: Mr. Walkinshaw asked unanimous consent that he be considered the first sponsor of H.R. 491.
The same file lists 68 cosponsors, one Republican and 67 Democrats. It was last updated on September 25, 2026, and records no hearing, markup or committee vote since the sponsorship change.
S. 624 and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
S. 624 was introduced on February 18, 2025, by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA). On that date it was read twice and referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and that referral is still the latest action in its status record. The file lists 19 cosponsors, 10 of them original and nine added later, and was last updated on May 14, 2026. It records no action of any kind after the referral, so the Senate bill has been with the committee for the whole 19 months to the date of this article.
The two bills share an official title: to amend title 5 of the U.S. Code to achieve parity between the cost-of-living adjustment for an annuity under FERS and one under the Civil Service Retirement System. A House bill and a Senate bill with matching titles are companions, but neither chamber has moved its version past referral.
Why the Equal COLA Act is framed as parity with CSRS
The official title of both measures describes their aim as parity between the FERS adjustment and the Civil Service Retirement System adjustment. OPM’s handbook, in its comparison of the two systems, states that under CSRS retirees may receive a cost-of-living adjustment at any age, and the bills’ framing places the FERS percentage, not the age rule, at the center of the proposal.
The section 8462 formula the proposals would change
Current law, in 5 U.S.C. 8462, ties FERS adjustments to a price index but limits them. When inflation does not exceed 3 percent, an annuity rises by the lesser of the inflation rate or 2 percent. When inflation is above 3 percent, the increase is the amount by which inflation exceeds 1 percent. The Office of Personnel Management’s CSRS/FERS Handbook restates the same tiers and notes that FERS annuitants who qualify received a 2.0 percent increase for 2026.
The introduced text of H.R. 491 would amend paragraph (1) of subsection (b) of section 8462 so that each annuity with a commencing date not later than the relevant December 1 would be increased by the percent change in the price index. It would apply to annuities commencing before, on or after the date of enactment. The age-62 rule sits in a different part of the same section, subsection (c)(3), and the amendment described in the introduced text is to paragraph (1) of subsection (b), the percentage formula.
As a hypothetical reading, an inflation figure of 3.4 percent produces a 2.4 percent adjustment under the formula in the statute today. Under the bill’s language, the same figure would produce an adjustment of 3.4 percent. At or below 2 percent inflation the current formula and the proposal would give the same result, since the lesser of inflation or 2 percent is inflation itself. The example is arithmetic on the proposal, not a forecast of any year’s rate.
What sitting in committee means for the proposals
A bill referred to committee is a proposal until both chambers pass identical text and it is signed. The status files show referral only: no committee report, no scheduled markup and no floor action for either measure. The cap in current law therefore governs every FERS adjustment until Congress enacts a change, and the bills as written would only apply to adjustments after enactment.
No cost estimate for either bill appears in the status files, and none is cited here. The record supports a narrow statement: H.R. 491 and S. 624, both introduced in 2025, have remained with their committees, and as of the status files read on October 4, 2026, neither has become law.
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Written with the help of an AI model and fact-checked against congressional bill-status records and statutory text.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
