DHS Withdraws Bid to Curb Union Rights

Officials have not signaled that they want to link the job ratings to salary decisions, a step that has been taken by the Defense Department through its new National Security Personnel System.

Kelley, the union president, said yesterday that she will continue to oppose any personnel system changes, including new job ratings, under consideration by the department. If the department decides to make any changes, they will be subject to the completion of bargaining and to any funding restrictions, she said.

A Silver Lining at the TSP

Last month, as stock prices dropped, the lifecycle funds at the Thrift Savings Plan did better than the TSP's big equity funds, officials told the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board yesterday.

While all TSP stock funds lost money in January, the lifecycle funds, which are geared to retirement dates, did not fall as much.

The 2040 lifecycle fund, for instance, lost 5.37 percent, but that decline in value was smaller than for the TSP's international stock fund (down 8.52 percent), small company fund (down 6.27 percent) and large company fund (down 5.98 percent).

Andrew M. Saul, the board chairman, called the January returns "bad losses" for the program but said the lifecycle funds, which were added to the Thrift Savings Plan in 2005, showed the value of a diversified portfolio. The TSP's lifecycle funds were not far off the performance of Wall Street's complex hedge funds, which were down about 3 percent, on average, he said.

The board also heard from Labor Department auditors, who urged the TSP to step up efforts to protect information in laptops and other portable computer devices. TSP officials accepted the recommendations and noted that software had been installed to permit remote destruction of data if a laptop is lost or stolen.