Broad Retirement Bill Offered

Legislation (HR-1263) pulling together several long-running federal retirement proposals has been introduced by the new chairman of the House federal workforce subcommittee, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. The measure would require the TSP to add a Roth option, in which money would go in after-tax but come out tax-free, a reversal of the current arrangement, and would require that newly hired employees be automatically enrolled in the TSP with a personal contribution, presumably 3 percent, with an opt-out option. It also would allow the TSP to offer investors access to investment funds other than the ones offered by the TSP itself. The measure further would: make unused sick leave for FERS employees creditable as time served in their annuity computation, as it is for CSRS employees; change the computation of CSRS annuities involving part-time service by revising a policy that creates a disincentive for employees nearing the end of their careers who would like to phase into retirement by working part-time; and allow annuitants to pay FEHB and FLTCIP premiums with pre-tax money under the premium conversion arrangement available to active employees in the FEHB, although not in the FLTCIP.