Other Bills May Arise

Other bills that may be considered before the legislative work for the year is finished include: bills (S-2468 and HR-4341) that have cleared the committee level to reform many U.S. Postal Service business practices, to encourage certain long-time injury compensation benefit recipients to switch to disability retirement and shift from USPS to the Treasury the responsibility for paying the portion of annuities for postal retirees associated with their military service; a House-passed bill (HR-3751) to require a study of how vision, dental and hearing benefits provided through the Federal Employees Health Benefits program can be improved or a Senate committee-passed bill (S-2657) to bypass the study and create a new stand-alone dental and vision benefits program; a bill (S-129) that has passed a House committee and the full Senate to expand agency use of certain monetary incentives for employees while also allowing employees to receive compensatory time off for travel during off-duty hours and revising a provision of CSRS retirement law that has the effect of discouraging employees from switching to part-time work later in their careers; a Senate-passed bill (S-2479) and a House committee-passed counterpart (HR-4324) to end the twice-yearly open seasons in the Thrift Savings Plan, effective allowing individuals at any time to join the program or change their levels of investment, actions that now can take place only during the open seasons; and Senate committee-passed bills to extend health insurance coverage for employees activated to military duty (S-2409) and to pay them the difference between their federal salary and their military pay, if lower (S-593).