Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance Act

Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance Act
Great Seal of the United States
Long titleAn act to authorize the Civil Service Commission to make available group life insurance for civilian officers and employees in the Federal service, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)FEGLIA
Enacted bythe 83rd United States Congress
EffectiveAugust 17, 1954
Citations
Public law83-598
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the Senate as S. 3681 on January 6, 1954[1]
  • Signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 17, 1954
United States Supreme Court cases
Hillman v. Maretta

The Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance Act (FEGLIA) is a United States federal statute passed by the 83rd U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 17, 1954.[2] The act provided for a group life insurance policy for most federal employees, similar to those provided for employees of most large industries.

The act established the Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) program, which covers over 4 million federal employees and is the largest group life insurance program in the world.[3] Under the program, new federal employees are automatically enrolled in a basic insurance program (group term with no cash value) with the option of waiving enrollment, and may also obtain additional coverage for themselves and their families. Insurance premiums are deducted from the employees' payroll checks. The cost of the plan is shared between the employee and the federal government in a 2:1 ratio for Basic coverage only (except for USPS employees whose coverage is fully paid by USPS), any Optional coverage is paid fully by the employee.

The FEGLI program also covers NASA astronauts, in particular, those astronauts who died on board the space shuttles Challenger[4] and Columbia.[5]

  1. ^ "68 STAT. 736". U. S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
  2. ^ Van Eenam, Weltha. "Group Life Insurance for Federal Employees" (PDF). Social Security Administration. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  3. ^ "Life Insurance". United States Office of Personnel Management. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  4. ^ AP (February 2, 1986). "Astronauts waived liability, had insurance". Reading Eagle. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  5. ^ Associated Press (February 10, 2003). "NASA Had No Special Insurance for Astronauts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 5 June 2013.