Two bills to affect Young Government Leaders

In my brief tenure as a Federal employee I have observed that civil servants are not in it for the fame, fortune or even the benefits - but that hasn’t stopped the U.S. House of Representatives from trying to sweeten the deal.

In the past few weeks the House has passed, and shuffled off to the Senate, two bills that will have a significant impact on current and future Federal employees. The first bill is the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2009.

As you can imagine from the title, the Act is designed to provide four weeks of paid parental leave to Federal employees for the birth or adoption of a new child. This addition is going to be an amazing benefit for those of us who plan to go forth and multiply in the coming years. Under current law, Federal employees are given 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to care for and bond with a new child. Unfortunately, to take advantage of that precious time off to adjust to the new family member in your life, you either have to have spent years accruing sick time and annual leave or be financially secure enough to pass on three months of paychecks. Neither of which are likely options for younger and/or recently hired employees. There are numerous details on the when, why and how you can take this new benefit. But, as this bill has not fully churned through the Senate, it’s hard to say what the final bill will look like when, or if, it’s ever ready for President Obama’s signature.

In the meantime, you can follow it here as it traverses the bureaucratic slalom that is our bicameral legislature:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h626/show

Also, Senator Webb has posted a decent fact sheet for the legislation on his website if you don’t feel up to parsing the legalese in the bill’s text:

http://webb.senate.gov/pdf/factsheet&q&afeppla.pdf

The second bill, the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Enhancement Act of 2009, contains several provisions to expand retirement savings options for federal employees. It is tucked down at the bottom of H.R. 1256, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, as if hoping no one would bother to read down that far. (http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1256/text?version=pcs&nid=t0:pcs:1081) While it’s certainly not the most thrilling read, its provisions are important so I’ll list the highlights here. Specifically, the bill:

1. Automatically enrolls new federal hires into the TSP.
2. Enables employees to invest their retirement money into mutual funds of their choice.
3. Includes a Roth 401(k) option so employees can pay taxes up front rather than when funds are withdrawn.
4. Permits spouses of deceased federal workers to continue managing their funds in the TSP rather than requiring them to withdraw and reinvest the funds elsewhere as the current law mandates. The bill advanced through the Senate this week after members wrangled over numerous amendments.

Most noteworthy for federal employees was an amendment proposed by Senator Lieberman that, among other things, would have allowed federal workers in the Federal Employees Retirement System to add unused sick time to their retirement annuities - a benefit still afforded to employees in the older Civil Service Retirement System.

Ironically, given everything else crammed into a bill about smoking prevention, the Senate parliamentarians felt the need to declare this amendment non-germane and omit it from further consideration. For more information GovernmentExecutive.com has a good write up on the bill’s trials and triumphs in the Senate. http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=42923&dcn=e_gvet

Patrick J. Kelly
Issues Director
YGL National