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To amend chapter 87 of title 5, United States Code, with respect to the order of precedence to be applied in the payment of life insurance benefits.

Public Law 105-205 · H.R. 1316 · 105th Congress · began in the House

Signed by Bill Clinton (D) on Jul 22, 1998 · Government Operations and Politics

Sponsor: Rep. Mac Collins (R-GA-3)

Cosponsors: None

Passage votes

  • HouseVoice vote
  • SenateUnanimous consent
Data notes

The final version of the law, as each chamber passed it. A chamber that passed it by voice vote or unanimous consent has no count. “Method not stated” means the record does not say how the chamber voted. Where the record has a member-by-member vote, the “Who voted for it” section shows who voted yea.

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Summary

The Congressional Research Service’s plain-language summary of what the law does.

Amends Federal law concerning Government organization and employees to require that any amount of group life insurance and group accidental death insurance that would otherwise be paid under the order of precedence named, be paid in whole or in part, by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to another person if and to the extent expressly provided for in the terms of any court decree of divorce, annulment, or legal separation, or the terms of any court order or court-approved property settlement agreement incident to any court decree of divorce, annulment, or legal separation. Prohibits a decree, order, or agreement from being effective unless it is received, before the date of the covered employee's death, by the employing agency, or, if the employee has separated from service, by OPM.

Prohibits a designation with respect to any person from being changed except: (1) with the written consent of such person, if received as described; or (2) by modification of the decree, order, or agreement, as the case may be, if received as described. Permits a court decree of divorce, annulment, or legal separation, or the terms of a court-approved property settlement agreement incident to any court decree of divorce, annulment, or legal separation, to direct that an insured employee or former employee make an irrevocable assignment of the employee's or former employee's incidents of ownership in insurance (if there is no previous assignment) to the person specified in the court order or court-approved property settlement agreement.

Committees

The committees the bill was sent to, and what each did with it.

Data notes

A committee links to its page only where it exists in the current Congress; older and renamed committees are named without a link.

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Timeline

From introduction to signing, newest first: the committees, the floor and the president. 16 actions.

  1. Jul 22, 1998Became lawBecame law · Became Public Law No: 105-205.
  2. Became lawBecame law · Signed by President.
  3. Jul 14, 1998PresidentPresident · Presented to President.
  4. Jun 18, 1998FloorFloor · Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
  5. Nov 6, 1997CommitteeCommittee · Reported by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
  6. Nov 5, 1997CommitteeCommittee · Markup by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
  7. Jun 25, 1997CommitteeCommittee · Referred to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
  8. Jun 24, 1997FloorFloor · Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
  9. FloorFloor · On passage Passed by voice vote.
  10. Jun 18, 1997CommitteeCommittee · Reported by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
  11. Jun 11, 1997CommitteeCommittee · Markup by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
  12. Jun 10, 1997CommitteeCommittee · Reported by Civil Service and Agency Organization Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
  13. CommitteeCommittee · Markup by Civil Service and Agency Organization Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
  14. Apr 15, 1997CommitteeCommittee · Referred to Civil Service and Agency Organization Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
  15. Apr 14, 1997CommitteeCommittee · Referred to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
  16. IntroducedIntroduced · Introduced in the House
Data notes

Shows the introduction, each committee and subcommittee step the source dates (referral, hearings, markup, report, discharge), and the floor, conference, presidential and became-law steps. Calendar placements, messages between the chambers, amendments and committee report numbers are not shown for laws before the 108th Congress. Two entries the source lists twice are shown once.

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Official record

The bill’s full text and every action, including introduction and committee steps, are on Congress.gov. Data through Oct 7, 2026.