Update: HR 1804 passed by a unanimous voice vote today. It will now head to the Senate, which is expected to consider the bill as part of the larger tobacco bill.
Original post: The House is preparing to vote on a bill containing several provisions affecting federal employees this afternoon. HR 1804, the Federal Retirement Reform Act, would:
- Automatically enroll all new employees in the Thrift Savings Plan’s G Fund. The Pentagon would decide on its own whether new military service members would be automatically enrolled.
- Create a Roth 401(k) option in the TSP.
- Allow the board governing the TSP to create additional investment funds for participants.
- Allow employees under the Federal Employees Retirement System to count their unused sick leave towards calculating their retirement annuities.
- Make sure Civil Service Retirement System employees who work part time at the end of their careers are paid their full annuities. Due to a faulty 1986 law, CSRS employees who go part time before retirement find their pre-1986 service is incorrectly calculated as part-time service, costing them hundreds or thousands of dollars each year. This bill would fix that error.
Floor debate is expected to begin at 1 p.m.
1 Comment
If FERS was created to do away with the CSRS why do FERS employees continue to receive CSRS benefits and CSRS employees are given nothing. I refer to FERS employees getting sick leave added to their retirement time. Why are CSRS employees not getting matching funds when contributing to TSP like FERS employees. Also, when new employees join FERS, they are automatically entered into the G fund. If CSRS benefits are good enough to add to FERS, what was the rush to get rid of CSRS? Apparently, the didn’t understand what CSRS nor FERS benefits/protections were.