5 U.S.C. § 8701 — Definitions

(a) "Employee" for this chapter means: (1) an employee as defined in section 2105; (2) a Member of Congress as defined in section 2106; (3) a Congressional employee as defined in section 2107; (4) the President; (5) a U.S. justice or judge serving during good behavior, whether (i) in regular active service, (ii) retired under section 371(b) or 372(a) of title 28, or (iii) resigned under section 371(a) of title 28 while keeping the right to that office's salary for life; (6) someone first employed by the D.C. government before October 1, 1987; (7) someone employed by Gallaudet College; (8) someone employed by a county committee under section 590h(b) of title 16; (9) someone appointed to a former President's office staff under the Act of August 25, 1958; and (10) someone appointed to a former President's or former Vice President's office staff under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, who was already an "employee" under another part of this list right before that appointment. It does NOT include: (A) an employee of a Farm Credit Administration-supervised corporation if private interests elect or appoint a board member; (B) someone who isn't a U.S. citizen or national and whose permanent duty station is outside the U.S., unless they already counted as an employee on September 30, 1979 through service in an Executive agency, the Postal Service, or the Smithsonian in the former Canal Zone area; or (C) an employee the Office of Personnel Management excludes by regulation under section 8716(b). (b) A teacher who works a different, non-teaching job during the break between two school years does not count as an "employee" for this chapter during that break. "Teacher" and "teaching position" mean what section 901 of title 20 says they mean. (c) "Basic insurance amount" means, for an employee, the greater of (1) their yearly basic pay rate, rounded up to the next $1,000, plus $2,000; or (2) $10,000. For a former employee still entitled to coverage, it means the basic insurance amount that applied when their insurance as an employee stopped under section 8706(a). (d)(1) "Family member" means (A) the individual's spouse; and (B) their unmarried dependent child (other than a stillborn child) — including an adopted child, stepchild, or foster child who lived with them in a regular parent-child relationship, or a recognized natural child — who is either (i) under 22, or (ii) 22 or older but unable to support themselves due to a mental or physical disability that started before age 22. (2) For this subsection, a child is "dependent" if, when the child died, the individual was either living with the child or supporting them, as determined under regulations the Office prescribes.