The First Responder Fair RETIRE Act: OPM's 2026 Proposed Rule and What It Means for Your Retirement

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The First Responder Fair RETIRE Act is a 2022 federal law that lets certain federal first responders keep their enhanced retirement coverage, sometimes informally called "6c" coverage, after a duty-related injury or illness that permanently prevents them from providing useful and efficient service in their covered position. On July 22, 2026, OPM, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, published a proposed rule to carry it out.
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If you're a federal law enforcement officer, firefighter, air traffic controller, Customs and Border Protection officer, nuclear materials courier, or a member of the Capitol Police or Supreme Court Police, the Act and OPM's proposed rule address whether an on-the-job injury could cost you the enhanced retirement coverage you've been paying extra for. According to the Federal Register notice (91 FR 46012), the public comment period runs through September 21, 2026.

This guide explains what the Act does, who qualifies, how the proposed rule would work, and the key deadlines, percentages, and estimates OPM has published. Every regulatory detail below is drawn from the official Federal Register document and cross-checked against OPM's own text. Because OPM's regulations are still a proposal, the procedural details could change before a final rule.

What the First Responder Fair RETIRE Act Does

The First Responder Fair RETIRE Act, formally the First Responder Fair Return for Employees on Their Initial Retirement Earned Act, preserves enhanced retirement coverage for public-safety employees who suffer a duty-related injury or illness that permanently prevents them from providing useful and efficient service in their covered position, and who then move to a different federal job.

Under the Act, an eligible employee reappointed to a desk or administrative role can be treated as if still serving in their original covered position for retirement purposes. Congress enacted the law as Public Law 117-225 on December 9, 2022, according to the Federal Register. It amended the two federal retirement systems OPM administers: CSRS, the Civil Service Retirement System, and FERS, the Federal Employees Retirement System. The Act also amended separate retirement provisions affecting certain Central Intelligence Agency and Department of State personnel, which fall outside the CSRS and FERS regulations discussed here. The 2026 rule is OPM's proposal to carry out the CSRS and FERS pieces.

The Loophole the Act Was Written to Close

Before this law, an injured first responder faced a harsh choice. Federal public-safety employees covered by special enhanced retirement provisions under CSRS or FERS receive earlier retirement eligibility in exchange for higher contributions and generally earlier mandatory separation.

According to OPM's Federal Register analysis, when one of these employees was permanently injured on the job and reassigned to a position outside those provisions, they typically lost that enhanced coverage. In OPM's own words in the notice, affected employees previously had no option but to forfeit their enhanced contributions and benefits or apply for a disability retirement and give up their federal careers.

The First Responder Fair RETIRE Act closes that gap. It creates a "deemed covered position," a non-covered job that still counts as covered for retirement math.

Who Qualifies Under the Proposed Rule

OPM's proposed rule sets four criteria that define a "qualifying condition." An injury or illness must meet all four before an agency can certify it. According to the Federal Register notice, the injury or illness must have been:

1. Incurred while the employee was serving in a covered public-safety position.
   
   
2. Sustained while on duty, as a direct result of performing those duties.
   
   
3. Severe enough to permanently prevent the employee from providing useful and efficient service in the covered position.
   
   
4. Incurred before the employee was already eligible for immediate retirement or subject to mandatory separation by age and service.

Meeting these four criteria isn't the whole test. You must also land a qualifying reappointment and receive agency certification. So holding one of the covered job titles doesn't by itself guarantee coverage; you qualify only if you satisfy the Act's injury, certification, and reappointment requirements.

A qualifying reappointment is a move into a CSRS- or FERS-covered position that is not itself a covered position, either within the same agency or an agency that regularly places people in related supervisory or administrative roles. Under the proposal, the move generally can't involve a break in service of more than three days. Time spent receiving workers' compensation benefits or using leave, including leave without pay, isn't treated as a break in service. So an employee who is medically unable to return for weeks or months doesn't automatically lose protection.

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Covered Positions at a Glance

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The enhanced retirement provisions apply to a specific list of federal public-safety roles. For the CSRS and FERS provisions addressed in OPM's proposed rule, the covered positions include the following. Note that the FERS and CSRS eligibility rules differ, so they're shown separately.

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Employees in these positions generally pay a retirement deduction that is one-half of one percentage point higher than the corresponding non-covered rate, according to the Federal Register notice. In exchange, they receive a higher annuity accrual rate and earlier retirement eligibility.

How "Deemed Covered" Status Works

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The heart of the proposed rule is the deemed covered position. OPM would introduce this concept in new subpart Z of 5 CFR part 831 (for CSRS) and new subpart M of 5 CFR part 842 (for FERS). When a qualifying employee is reappointed to a non-covered job, that job would count as covered for retirement credit, deductions, contributions, and annuity computation, but not for pay purposes.

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Deemed coverage is a fallback, not the first option. According to OPM, the agency's first objective is to place an injured employee into an actual covered secondary position, a supervisory or administrative role related to their former duties that still carries enhanced coverage. Deemed coverage applies only when that placement isn't possible.

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In practice, deemed coverage would mean you keep contributing at the higher covered rate, and your agency keeps paying the higher agency contribution, just as if you still held the original public-safety role. According to OPM, the agency contribution for CSRS-deemed covered employees is 7.5 percent. For FERS, the agency would continue to pay the full normal cost tied to the prior covered position.

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Service in the deemed covered position would count toward the enhanced annuity calculation. And, importantly, you wouldn't be forced out under the mandatory separation rules that normally apply to public-safety workers.

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Deemed coverage wouldn't be permanent. Once you reach the age and service point at which you would have faced mandatory separation from the original covered position, both the employee deduction and the agency contribution would drop to the ordinary non-covered rates. Deemed coverage can also end earlier in other situations, described in the comparison below.

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Enhanced Coverage vs. Deemed Coverage: The Key Difference

The core distinction is simple. Enhanced coverage attaches to the actual public-safety job. Deemed coverage would let an injured employee carry that retirement treatment into a different job. The table below compares the two.

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A deemed covered position would never count as a covered position for pay purposes, according to the Federal Register notice. So benefits such as law enforcement availability pay (LEAP) or the Border Patrol overtime supplement wouldn't carry over.

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The Waiver Option and Your Appeal Rights

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Not every employee will want deemed coverage, and the proposed rule builds in a choice. You could waive continuation of enhanced coverage by filing a written election with the reappointing agency. According to OPM's proposed text, you would file the waiver within 60 days of receiving the required agency notice, and the waiver would be irrevocable once made.

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The rule also proposes to protect due process. If an employing agency decides an injury isn't a qualifying condition, or a reappointing agency denies deemed-covered treatment, you could appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the independent agency that adjudicates federal employee disputes. Under the proposal, agencies would have to provide their determinations in writing, with notice of your appeal rights.

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How Many Federal Employees the Rule Affects

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OPM has published concrete estimates of the rule's reach. According to the Federal Register regulatory analysis, roughly 220,000 federal employees are currently subject to CSRS or FERS enhanced retirement provisions and could theoretically be touched by the rule.

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OPM anticipates about 10,000 of them will become injured or ill on duty. Of those, only about 215 will be unable to find a primary or secondary covered position and therefore rely on the Act's deemed-coverage path. OPM states this represents less than one-tenth of one percent of employees in enhanced retirement positions, which is why the agency doesn't expect a significant economic impact.

Key Dates and the Effective Cutoff

Two dates matter most. First, the injury cutoff. According to the Federal Register notice, the Act applies only to affected individuals who incur a qualifying injury or illness on or after December 9, 2024, and who are current federal employees. Injuries before that date aren't covered.

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Second, the comment deadline. OPM is accepting public comments on the proposed rule through September 21, 2026. Submit them through the federal eRulemaking portal at Regulations.gov under Docket ID OPM-2024-0014.

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Because this is a proposed rule, the details above could change before OPM issues a final rule. If you believe you may be affected, track the docket and, where appropriate, submit a comment during the open period.

Planning Around the Proposed Rule

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For federal public-safety employees, the practical takeaway is that a duty-related injury may no longer have to mean the end of the enhanced retirement you've funded. But the protections hinge on details that are easy to miss under the stress of a medical event and a job change: the three-day break-in-service limit, the proposed 60-day waiver window, the agency certification, and the December 9, 2024 cutoff.

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Federal Employee Advisor Network, a retirement planning firm specializing in federal employee benefits, works with public-safety employees to map how a reappointment would affect their CSRS or FERS annuity, TSP (Thrift Savings Plan) balance, and overall retirement timeline before decisions are locked in. Because the rule is still in the proposal stage, the firm recommends confirming any figure against the current OPM guidance before you act on it.

The Bottom Line

The First Responder Fair RETIRE Act addresses a long-standing inequity. The Act gives qualifying covered first responders a path to preserve enhanced retirement treatment after certain duty-related injuries or illnesses, when they continue federal service through a qualifying reappointment.

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OPM's 2026 proposed rule lays out how the agency proposes to administer those protections, from the four-part qualifying-condition test to the deemed-covered contribution rates and the September 21, 2026 comment deadline. If you serve in a covered public-safety role, now is the time to understand the rule before it's finalized.

Federal Employee Advisor Network, a retirement planning firm specializing in federal employee benefits, can model how these provisions would shape your specific FERS or CSRS retirement. Schedule a benefits review to plan ahead.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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1. What is the First Responder Fair RETIRE Act?

It's a 2022 federal law that lets qualifying covered first responders preserve enhanced retirement coverage after a duty-related injury or illness permanently prevents them from continuing in their covered position. It amended both CSRS and FERS, according to the Federal Register, and OPM published a proposed rule to implement it on July 22, 2026, with comments open through September 21, 2026.

2. Who qualifies for coverage under the Act?

Federal employees serving in specified covered law enforcement, firefighter, air traffic control, Customs and Border Protection, nuclear materials courier, and Capitol or Supreme Court Police positions may qualify. You qualify only if you satisfy the Act's injury, agency-certification, and qualifying-reappointment requirements, according to OPM's proposed rule in the Federal Register. Holding one of these job titles doesn't by itself guarantee coverage.

3. When does the First Responder Fair RETIRE Act take effect?

The Act applies to qualifying injuries or illnesses incurred on or after December 9, 2024, according to the Federal Register notice. Injuries before that date aren't covered. The implementing regulation is still a proposed rule, so final provisions may change after OPM reviews public comments submitted by the September 21, 2026 deadline.

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4. What is a deemed covered position?

A deemed covered position is a non–public-safety job that OPM would treat as covered for retirement purposes only. According to the Federal Register, an injured employee in this position would keep the enhanced annuity accrual and contributions of their old role, and would not be subject to the mandatory-separation rules that normally apply to the original covered position. They wouldn't receive covered-position pay benefits such as law enforcement availability pay.

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5. Can I keep my enhanced ("6c") retirement if I'm injured and reassigned?

Yes, if you meet the Act's criteria. Under OPM's proposed rule, you would keep enhanced retirement coverage following a qualifying reappointment after a certified duty-related injury, subject to the three-day break-in-service rule. Certain periods receiving FECA benefits or using leave, including leave without pay, aren't treated as a break in service. You could also waive this coverage in writing within 60 days if you prefer.

6. How many federal employees will the rule affect?

About 220,000 employees hold enhanced retirement positions, according to OPM's Federal Register analysis. Roughly 10,000 are expected to be injured on duty, and only about 215 are projected to actually rely on the Act's deemed-coverage path. That's less than one-tenth of one percent of employees in enhanced retirement positions.

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Disclaimer

This article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, tax, or retirement advice. The OPM regulations discussed are proposed and may change before a final rule is issued. Federal employees should verify current requirements, eligibility rules, deadlines, and retirement provisions with OPM, the Federal Register, and their employing agency before making retirement or benefits decisions.