Federal agencies are conducting what amounts to a limited benefits open season for employees and retirees in same-sex marriages through August 26 but they have some flexibility to extend that opportunity for their employees, under OPM guidance. The opportunity applies because until the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Defense of Marriage Act case employees and retirees had been ineligible to carry their same-sex spouses on certain federal employee benefits programs. Those spouses—so long as they were legally married in a jurisdiction that recognizes such marriages, regardless of their current place of residence—and children are now eligible under standard family-related policies in the FEHB, FEDVIP, FEGLI, FLTCIP, flexible spending account and retirement survivor benefit programs. The change in eligibility is being treated as a "qualifying life event"–effectively, as a new marriage—that allows certain enrollment changes in those programs. OPM has told agencies they can allow belated changes until December 26 in FEHB and in FEGLI, although not in the other programs.