Note 12. Federal Employee Benefits

These liabilities consist of:

Federal Employee Benefits Liabilities
(In Thousands)

	FY 2005	FY 2004
Actuarial FECA Liability	$173,414	$179,179
NOAA Corps Retirement System Liability	350,300	335,700
NOAA Corps Post-retirement Health Benefits Liability	45,400	42,800
Total	$569,114	$557,679

Actuarial FECA Liability:

Actuarial FECA liability is calculated annually, as of September 30. For discounting projected annual future benefit payments to present value, the interest rate assumptions used by DOL were as follows:

The wage inflation factors (Cost of Living Allowance) and medical inflation factors (Consumer Price Index - Medical) applied to the calculation of projected future benefits, and also used to adjust the methodology’s historical payments to current year constant dollars, were as follows:

NOAA Corps Retirement System Liability:

This liability represents the unfunded actuarial present value of projected plan benefits. The actuarial calculation is performed annually, as of September 30. The actuarial calculations used the following U.S. Department of Defense Retirement Board economic assumptions:

The related pension costs included in the Consolidated Statements of Net Cost are as follows:

Related Pension Costs
(In Thousands)

	FY 2005	FY 2004
Normal Cost	$ 5,600	$ 4,900
Interest on the Unfunded Liability	20,500	19,900
Actuarial (Gains) Losses, Net	4,900	(100)
Total Pension Costs	$31,000	$24,700

NOAA Corps Post-retirement Health Benefits Liability:

This liability represents the unfunded actuarial present value of projected post-retirement plan benefits. The actuarial calculation is performed annually, as of September 30. The actuarial calculations used the same U.S. Department of Defense Retirement Board economic assumptions as used for the NOAA Corps Retirement System actuarial calculations. The claims costs used to derive the post-retirement liabilities were taken from the analysis of the U.S. Military’s Projected Retiree Medical Liabilities reports for FY 2005 and FY 2004.

The related post-retirement health benefits costs included in the Consolidated Statements of Net Cost are as follows:

Related Post-Retirement Health Benefits Costs
(In Thousands)

	FY 2005	FY 2004
Normal Cost	$2,900	$3,200
Interest on the Unfunded Liability	2,700	2,500
Actuarial (Gains) Losses, Net	(1,700)	(1,900)
Total Post-retirement Health Benefits Costs	$3,900	$3,800