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Washington, D.C.—A key House subcommittee has approved legislation expanding federal employee opportunities for telework, providing a way for them to boost their Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) accounts and extending greater oversight to drug pricing in the federal employee health program. Each is a proposal advanced and supported by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

“These bills represent good policy not only for the federal workforce and their agencies, but for the nation as well,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “Their passage would represent a major step forward in boosting the competitiveness of federal agencies as an employer of choice for talented, dedicated workers.”

One of the measures approved by House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce would expand telework opportunities for greater numbers of federal employees by ensuring that all those eligible for telework could do so at least 20 of the hours they work every two-week period.

That provision is in bipartisan legislation, H.R. 1722, introduced by Reps. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), Gerald Connolly (D-Va.), James Moran (D-Va.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.). All are strong supporters of expanded telework among federal employees, as is NTEU.

“The benefits of telework are clear—and substantial,” President Kelley said. “NTEU will continue to press hard for expanded telework opportunities for federal employees.”

The subcommittee also approved a bipartisan measure, introduced by its chairman Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) and ranking member Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), that would allow federal employees who are retiring from or leaving federal service to deposit money received from unused annual leave into their TSP account. NTEU made such a proposal last fall when President Obama raised the idea for private sector workers.

“Establishing this right for federal employees would help employees save for retirement and would position the federal government as a leader among employers in recognizing the needs of its workforce,” said President Kelley.

In support of the idea, the NTEU leader noted that many federal employees carry over the maximum amount of 240 hours of annual leave every year and that this could make a significant difference in their TSP account.

On another important subject, the subcommittee approved language proposed by Rep. Lynch to increase Office of Personnel Management (OPM) oversight authority with regard to prescription drug management companies that play a part in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. The operations of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, was the subject of a forum conducted by Rep. Lynch in recent months.

Virtually all participants in that forum agreed there needs to be far more transparency in PBM operations, and that OPM has to have more oversight authority.

“Rising prescription drugs costs are a primary driver of constantly-increasing FEHBP premiums. Such costs account for some 30 percent of the premiums,” Kelley said, “and OPM has got to have the authority to get a much better handle on the role PBMs play in this regard.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.