Federal Newscast

House passes bill to give TSP participants more withdrawal options

In today's Federal Newscast, a bill to let Thrift Savings Plan participants make more withdrawals from the TSP passes the House and heads to the Senate.

Eric White@FEDERALNEWSCAST

October 12, 2017 8:09 am

3 min read

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Thrift Savings Plan participants are one step closer to seeing more flexibilities with their retirement plan. The House passed the TSP Modernization Act. The bill lets participants make multiple age-based and post-separation withdrawals from the TSP. The bill now goes to the full Senate for a vote. (National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association)

Defense Undersecretary for Acquisition, Technology and Loggistics Ellen Lord wants to cut DoD’s contract delivery time by 50 percent. The initiative is part of the Pentagon’s mandate to split its acquisition office. Lord said DoD will cut contracting time by drawing on existing authorities and simplifying the acquisition process. (Federal News Radio)

Kay Kapoor, the president of AT&T Government Solutions is resigning. Multiple sources confirmed to Federal News Radio that Kapoor is leaving after more than four years on the job. Sources said Xavier Williams, a long-time AT&T executive, will replace Kapoor. Williams has been with AT&T since 1990, and spent the last seven months as president of business operations. Kapoor also has worked at Accenture, ITT and Lockheed Martin during her career. It’s unclear what Kapoor will do next. (Federal News Radio)

President Donald Trump nominated Kirstjen Nielson, now his deputy chief of staff, to be the next secretary of the Homeland Security Department. Nielson has been there before. She was John Kelly’s chief of staff when he was secretary, before Kelly moved to the White House. Nielson was a special assistant to President George W. Bush. She also had a stint at the Transportation Security Administration as its legislative policy and government affairs chief. (Associated Press)

After multiple security breaches, Acting Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Kent Rochford pledged improved physical security at NIST facilities. He told Congress he was leading a culture change at the agency. Rochford said the agency recently completed a security sprint and was working with leadership on employee training efforts. (Federal News Radio)

Defense Department officials told Congress the agency can handle its own security clearances. They cited DoD’s already mature continuous evaluation and insider threat programs, which they said could serve as the base system for doing background checks of defense personnel. There is a chance the Pentagon will get that responsibility back in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. (Federal News Radio)

The Justice Department charged Issac Avant, former chief of staff for Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), with lying on a security clearance form. Avant did not file tax returns between 2008 and 2012. He then failed to mention that when filling out a Standard Form 86 when he was given a position with the House Homeland Security Committee. (Department of Justice)

A former congressional staffer pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to use money from a charity to pay for his personal expenses and his boss’ campaign. According to the Justice Department, Jason Posey, aide to former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), illegally funneled $15,000 of charitable proceeds into Stockman’s campaign bank account, then lied to the Federal Election Commission about it. (Department of Justice)

The Veterans Affairs Department stepped back a proposal to suspend a 50-year-old ethics law. The law, first passed in 1966, requires VA to fire any employee who also works for a school whose students receive VA benefits. The department had planned to completely stop enforcing that requirement by next Monday, since some of its employees also work as adjunct professors at for-profit colleges. But it abruptly walked back the regulatory change on Wednesday after complaints from veterans groups who said the waivers should only be granted on a case-by-case basis. (Federal News Radio)