Debate Over Federal Telework Fumes In House Subcommittee
Agency HR officials defended their approach to workplace flexibilities and highlighted budgetary issues as bigger drivers of poor customer service. Click HERE to read more.
Ideas For AI in Government are There. The People Aren’t, Experts Say
Job competition and recruitment concept, Robots waiting in line together with humans for vacant job competition of people and robots for jobs vector illustration. (Getty Images.)
The federal government has put forward a number of policy blueprints to ensure ethical and transparent use of artificial intelligence in government. They mean little if agencies lack the leadership and workers to enforce them, which they currently do, tech experts said before Senate lawmakers on Tuesday.
AI has been gaining popularity over time as agencies have been attracted to the idea of automating rote processes. The concern is that without an expert workforce to guide its trajectory, AI could lead to situation where agencies are riding without training wheels, causing harm to themselves and others, experts said before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs on May 16.
Consider: there is a vacancy for the director of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office within the White House — a role that is key to coordinating AI policy and research across government. There are agencies who’ve yet to install a chief AI officer. There are some 40,000 cybersecurity jobs to fill in the public sector to support government’s approach to ethical, safe AI use. During a separate hearing the CEO of ChatGPT himself urged government intervention as necessary to mitigate risks of powerful AI systems.
Such leadership holes make it difficult for agencies to craft and curb the technology, said Lynne Parker, a professor at the University of Tennessee and the former director of NAIIO. Experts urged specific guardrails for automated technology that at its most extreme can formulaically cut subsistence funding for Medicaid beneficiaries without so much as a review by a benefits officer — an example given by a witness attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. Click HERE to learn more.
How to Avoid Taxes on Your Federal Retirement
We’ve all heard it. There is nothing we can do to avoid death and taxes, but is that really true?
When it comes to death, I have nothing for you. I have not yet found the fountain of youth but I’ll keep you posted.
While avoiding 100% of taxes is probably not going to happen, there are certainly strategies you can use to decrease your tax burden throughout your retirement.
Here are some of the best strategies.
Roth Conversions
Getting money over to an after-tax bucket can be an incredible way to lower your tax bill over time.
Roth Conversions become even more attractive given the fact that tax rates are most likely going to be going up in the future. This article goes into more depth on when and how to do Roth Conversions. Click HERE to read full article.
How Re-employment Affects Federal Retirement Benefits
If you retired and are considering going back to work for the government, you could boost your annuity—perhaps substantially.
Unless you are one of the few who will be able to keep both your annuity and the full salary of your new position, what happens depends on whether your retirement was voluntary or involuntary and what retirement system you were in. If your retirement was voluntary, you’ll continue receiving your annuity; however, unless you are allowed to draw both fully, your salary for the new job will be offset by the amount of your annuity. If you work part time, the reduction will be proportional.
In general, the annuity of a retiree stops if he or she was involuntarily separated and the new position is permanent in nature, for example a career, career conditional or excepted service appointment. If that’s the case for you, when you go back to work you’ll have the same status as any other federal employee in an equivalent position and with a similar service history. In other words, you’ll pick up where you left off. When you leave government again, your annuity will be reinstated unless you are entitled to either an immediate or a deferred annuity based on the new separation. Click HERE to read full article
TSP Millionaire Count Falls Again
Only about six-tenths of TSP account holders who had at least $1 million on investment at the start of the year now can say the same, with the number falling to 65,494 in the latest accounting, through September.
That’s down by some 7,000 from the count through June, by more than 47,000 from year-end 2021 and by about 33,000 over the 12 months since September 2021.
Compared to year-end 2021, the 81,557 with accounts between $750,000 and $1 million and the 187,615 between $500,000 and $750,000 are down by about 24,000 and 33,000, while the 513,037 with accounts between $250,000 and $500,000 are down by about 25,000.
The largest TSP account as of September was just under $6.5 million, while as of year-end 2021 the largest account — possibly, but not necessarily, the same one — was just under $11 million.
The TSP recently reported separately that through September the average account balance for those under FERS had fallen about $30,000 to about $150,000 at the start of the year, while the average CSRS investor account had fallen by nearly as much to about $169,000.
The TSP stock funds posted strong gains in October, however.
Citation: FedWeek
Published: November 8, 2022