The vast majority of the record number of congressional lawmakers not seeking re-election next year, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), will collect annual pension benefits that cost taxpayers some $38 million per year to payout.
The timing of Greene’s abrupt retirement, as well of the six-figure sum Pelosi will receive after serving nearly 40 years in Congress, have brought attention to the little-known perk for ex-pols and renewed calls to end the program.
“I can’t read her mind, but it certainly seems as if it was timed to make sure she got vested,” Demian Brady, the vice president of research for the National Taxpayer Union Foundation, said of the Georgia Republican’s last day in the House.
Under federal law, members of Congress qualify for annual pension benefits only after completing five full years of service.
Brady was one of the first to point out that Greene, who began serving on Jan. 3, 2021, and will leave office on Jan. 5, 2026, picked a departure date that gives her just enough time to meet the eligibility threshold.
“She wasn’t in there for very long,” the taxpayer advocate continued. “So it’s not a huge pension, but it’s a little extra that she’s going to get.”
Brady calculated that under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) benefit formula for members of Congress, at age 62, Greene will start collecting her $8,717 per year pension, which the expert noted is “lower than the average.”
Based on actuarial data, Greene’s total pension payouts could amount to more than $265,000 over her lifetime, according to Brady.
Meanwhile, Pelosi’s estimated pension figure – given the pay bump she received as House speaker and her election to the House before reforms made the system less generous – will be “one of the most substantial” on record for any current or former member of Congress in FERS, Brady noted.
The California Democrat will benefit from an estimated $107,860 per year upon retirement in 2027.
The most recent publicly available data shows retirement benefits for former members of Congress totaled more than $38 million in 2022, according to Congressional Research Services.
The average annual annuity received under FERS was $45,276. A separate pension plan under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) – which is closed to lawmakers who began service after 1984 – doled out an average $84,504 to 261 enrollees in 2022.
In 2018, when there were roughly 100 additional CSRS enrollees and 60 fewer in FERS, total pension payouts amounted to more than $53 million per year.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a Greene ally, has been one of the biggest proponents for eliminating congressional pensions – but he doesn’t blame the congresswoman for accepting the benefits.
“Senators can opt out of paying into FERS but Representatives may not,” Massie told The Post. “So Representative Greene was unable to decline participation in FERS.
“If a member is required to pay into the program, they should be able to receive it.”
Massie said he plans to “reintroduce soon” legislation to end the eligibility of House lawmakers in the FERS program, as well as a separate bill that would “make participation optional for Representatives.”
“If congressmen want to save for retirement, they should do so with 401(k)-type plans, rather than rely on taxpayers to take care of them even after leaving Congress,” he said. “To tackle out-of-control federal spending, Congress must lead by example by ending defined-benefit pensions for Members of Congress.”
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a former congressman, publicly pledged in 2013 that he would not accept his pension benefits despite paying into the system and authored the legislation Massie (an original co-sponsor) intends to put forward once again.
“I didn’t run for Congress for the perks,” DeSantis said at the time. “I ran for office to be the type of citizen legislator our Founding Fathers envisioned and to change the prevailing culture in Washington.”
In the aftermath of Greene’s resignation announcement, the Florida governor reupped his call to axe the benefit program.
“I don’t begrudge others who made a different choice,” DeSantis wrote on X last week, when a user noted his 2013 decision. “The important thing is to reform the system for everyone, namely, by ending congressional pensions.”
In a separate post, the former GOP presidential primary candidate noted that members of Congress also accrue retirement benefits through a separate program, the Thrift Savings Plan.
“How many private sector workers get a pension and a 401k? End Pensions in Congress,” DeSantis demanded.
The governor also revealed that when he introduced his bill to end the taxpayer-backed program it “needless to say, did not get a terribly warm reception among the members.”
Brady, the congressional pension expert and reform advocate, agreed that current lawmakers are the biggest obstacle to ending congressional pensions.
“I think the big roadblock are career politicians,” he told The Post. “They spend their whole, you know, decades and decades in public office, and so they’re going to want that pension once they get out.
“I think that’s the main block on any reforms going forward.”
Although he doesn’t view Greene’s retirement date – which also falls on the eve of the first day of legislative business in 2026 – as something that is “really going to move the ball forward” on reform, he credits the congresswoman for inadvertently “raising a lot of awareness” about congressional pensions.
Greene and Pelosi did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
