Senate Committee Gives Go Ahead to TSP Flexibility Bill

Rather than have TSP changes relegated to open windows, the Thrift Savings Plan Open Elections Act (S. 2479) would amend Chapter 84 of Title 5 of the U.S. Code to offer federal workers the flexibility to make changes to their TSP accounts at any time. The bill was introduced May 21 by Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), according to Washington-based legal publisher BNA.

As the regulations are currently written, participants in the 401(k)-esque plan for federal employees are only allowed to make changes to their accounts during biannual open windows – between April 15 and June 30 and October 15 and December 31. Further, new federal employees only have 60 days to open a TSP account, or they can wait for one of the windows.

Also contained in the TSP bill were provisions for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to “periodically” evaluate whether federal employees have the information needed to understand their TSP options. The Board must also report its TSP education efforts annually to Congress.

It also calls for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board periodically to evaluate whether federal employees have the information needed to understand their TSP options, and to report annually to Congress on the board’s TSP education efforts.

Introduced May 21, the legislation was approved June 2 by a voice vote in the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which Collins chairs.