House Passes Federal Retirement Reform Bill
April 3, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The U.S. House, by
a voice vote, has passed the Federal Retirement Reform Act of
2009.
According to a news report on govexec.com, the bill
includes provisions to enroll new employees automatically
in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) and allow for Roth
deferrals, as well as to give the TSP board the authority
to add self-directed investment window options if doing
so is in the best interest of participants. The TSP
provisions were previously tacked on to another bill
before the House (see
Legislation Would Add Auto Enrollment
Feature to TSP
).
The measure would also provide for unused sick
leave to be counted toward the computation of the
retirement benefits for federal employees under the
Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) as it is
for employees under the Civil Service Retirement System
(CSRS). The Federal Managers Association contends that
the measure would give FERS employees incentives to avoid
taking unnecessary sick days, reducing the cost of sick
leave to the government, according to govexec.com.
Finally, the legislation would remove rules that
effectively penalize CSRS employees for working part-time
at the end of their careers and allow FERS employees
returning to government after a stint in the private
sector to reinvest their retirement savings and claim
credit for previous service.
Darryl Perkinson, national president of the Federal
Managers Association, urged the Senate to take up the
measure and pass it quickly, the news report said.
Rebecca Moore
editors@plansponsor.com