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Washington, D.C – Federal employees would have more flexibility to manage their retirement accounts under bipartisan legislation endorsed by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and approved by the House today.

The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Modernization Act would give federal employees more options for how to withdraw money from their accounts, a long-overdue update to the popular program.

“We welcome the strong bipartisan support for making the Thrift Savings Plan a more user-friendly piece of the federal retirement program, giving employees and retirees more freedom to make the decisions that are best for them and their families,” said NTEU National President Tony Reardon.

H.R. 3031 passed the House unanimously under suspension of the rules, meaning it was noncontroversial and had broad, bipartisan support.

The TSP Modernization Act would allow active federal employees to make multiple age-based withdrawals and remain eligible for partial withdrawals once they leave government employment. It would allow those who left the federal workforce to make multiple partial post-separation withdrawals. And it would allow those receiving monthly payments to change the amount or frequency of their payment at any time, rather than just once a year.

NTEU is a member of the TSP Employee Thrift Advisory Council and has long advocated for less restrictive withdrawal rules for the TSP. The withdrawal rules for the TSP have not changed since the program was established in 1986.

NTEU also supports the Senate version of the bill, S. 873, which was approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in July.

“Federal employees and retirees are looking forward to taking advantage of this new flexibility and we commend Congress for taking decisive action on this common-sense reform,” Reardon said. “NTEU will work to secure final passage in the Senate.”

NTEU represents 150,000 employees at 31 federal agencies and departments.