Ideas Have Checkered History

The provisions of the bill have made only sputtering progress in Congress when introduced in the past. For example, the TSP provisions and the FERS sick leave crediting proposal cleared the House last year as an amendment to an unrelated bill, which the Senate never took up because of opposition from the Bush administration. The CSRS part-time work issue has never reached resolution even though the Bush administration supported the reform proposal as did civil service leaders of both parties. On premium conversion, similar bills have been offered since the program was created in 2000, and while the measures have cleared the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee several times, they have stalled in the Ways and Means Committee, which controls tax policy, due to concerns about lost revenue and the potential precedent for applying the same benefit to private sector retirees.