The Thrift Savings Plan has said it will carry out its recently enacted authority to end open seasons
for employee participation effective July 1, which means that the TSP will conduct one last open
season, running April 15-June 30. That in turn effectively means that eligible employees can join the
program and current participants can change the amounts of their investments at any time after April
15. Until then, the traditional policy continues to apply, in which employees can change how their
ongoing investments are allocated or change the distribution of their current account balances at any
time, but cannot join the program or change the amounts of their ongoing investments until April 15.
Starting July 1, contribution elections will be processed under a new policy requiring elections to be
effective no later than the first full pay period after they are filed, a faster schedule than under
current practice. The change in law does not affect the waiting period for agency contributions to
begin for newly hired employees, which in some cases can be close to a year.
