More TSP News - House Approves TSP Automatic Enrollment Measure

Alyssa Rosenberg of GovExec.com (hat tip to Benefitslink.com) is reporting: "House approves TSP automatic enrollment measure." (As some knowledgeable readers know, the TSP is the federal government's 401(k)-style Thrift Savings Plan.) Important takeaways:

• New federal employees will be automatically enrolled into the plan at a modest 3%-of-pay contribution level (Side-note: http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/ is the official federal government job search site)
• The funds from automatic enrollments would be invested in the stable government securities fund to insulate new participants from any potential large losses
• Federal employees who were hired after 1984 will be granted credit for unused sick time in their pension calculations
• The measure would require the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to include a Roth Individual Retirement Account option in the plan. The article quoted Gregory Long, the TSP Executive Director as saying they would study this provision since the TSP is premised on pre-tax contributions
• A new provision will relieve the TSP's fiduciaries of legal liability for allowing plan participants to invest in self-directed investment funds or restricting them from making such investments
• Two other liability provisions were included in the measure passed by the House, one of which blocked federal employees from suing the fiduciaries over automatic enrollment or investing automatic enrollment funds in the government securities fund.