The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Thursday passed legislation that would allow federal employees to contribute more to the Thrift Savings Plan.
Under the bill, sponsored by Rep. Constance Morella, R-Md., federal employees would be able to contribute up to $10,000 a year to the TSP, and new employees will be able to begin participation immediately upon hiring.
According to current rules, employees under the Federal Employees Retirement System can only contribute up to 10 percent of their salaries to the TSP, while Civil Service Retirement System employees can contribute up to 5 percent.
The proposal was originally part of the Civil Service Improvement Act that the Committee's Civil Service Subcommittee was considering. It contained 40 different provisions, including measures that would have raised the cap on overtime pay for managers, prohibited managers from using pass/fail systems to evaluate employees and restricted employees' use of official time to conduct union business.
However, in the face of union opposition to many of the proposals, Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., agreed to only pursue the proposals with the unanimous support of subcommittee members. The subcommittee on Tuesday forwarded all of the legislation to the full committee.
The committee Thursday also approved a provision that would allow agencies the flexibility to use salary and expense appropriations to subsidize employee child care and a measure that allows federal employees to take seven days of leave to donate bone marrow and 30 days of leave to donate an organ.
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