President’s Message Will we have May flowers? I've seen many around so far and just love this me of year. Hope you have been able to enjoy the beauty of Spring. Ted Johnson gave a great, informal yet informaonal meeng in March. Sorry we did not see some of you there! By the me you get this we will have also had our April meeng on the local charity, The Sophia Elizabeth Foundaon. In May and June we will collect back packs and school supplies for the foundaon. If you can’t make the meeng, send a giſt card so they can get what they need (If you can of course.) We are trying to do some payback to our community and the world around us. We said goodbye to our hard working Ulysyne Williams at our last officers meeng. She has been dedicated to helping our club in so many ways. Good news is she will stay a member of our chapter. Best of luck Ulyssne in your new adventures in Las Vegas! ▪ Roxie Paerson, President Naonal Acve and Rered Federal Employees Associaon Antelope Valley CHAPTER 877 Lancaster, California Executive Board Legislation Introduced to Change TSP Withdrawal Options: Sens. Portman and Carper, have introduced the TSP Modernizaon Act, which would provide more flexible withdrawal opons for TSP accounts. The bill would allow mulple, paral post-separaon withdrawals that parcipants can me to their individual needs. Currently, parcipants who have separated from federal service are allowed only two post-separaon withdrawals (in the form of a lump sum payment, a stream of monthly payments or annuity payments). For parcipants who are sll working and are older than age 59½, the bill would allow mulple age-based withdrawals. Current rules allow only one age-based withdrawal for those sll working. The bill also would add flexibility to the TSP by allowing the elecon of quarterly or annual payments and perming periodic withdrawals to be changed at any point during the year. Payments could be stopped while allowing the account balance to remain in the TSP. Currently, periodic payments can be selected only in monthly intervals, can be adjusted only once per year and cannot be stopped unless the parcipant withdraws the enre remaining balance. Finally, the bill would eliminate the withdrawal elecon deadline. Currently, parcipants are required to make a post- separaon withdrawal elecon by April 1 of the year following the year in which they turn age 70½ and are separated from federal service. This requirement too oſten is conflated with the requirement to begin taking required minimum distribuons the same day, which leads to withdrawals of the full TSP balance. The Employee Thriſt Advisory Council, of which NARFE is a member, supports the improvements in withdrawal flexibility. NARFE recommends you send a leer to your legislators asking them to support the bill. Fiduciary Rule Applicability Date Delayed 60 Days: The Department of Labor (DOL) published a final rule to extend by 60 days the applicability date for defining who is a “fiduciary” when providing rerement investment advice, delaying the full implementaon of the “conflict of interest” or “fiduciary” rule to June 9, 2017. President Trump signed a presidenal memo direcng the Labor Department to review the rule to determine whether it should be rescinded or revised. This delay is one of the first steps in a process that could lead to the demise or substanal alteraon of the rule. However, based on the release, it appears that the DOL does not ancipate any addional delays beyond 60 days in seng the definion of who is a fiduciary and establishing the standards of conduct necessary to ensure the adviser is acng in the best interests of the client. The DOL also does not expect to complete its review of the fiduciary rule within the 60- day delay period. The full review is ATTENTION MEMBERS I NEED YOUR HELP! I have wrien in the past months about the changes NARFE HQ has implemented as a result of the Oponal Chapter Membership decision at the Naonal Convenon in 2016. The Naonal Board decided to send out renewal noces giving members the opportunity to join either as a Naonal Member only, or connue to pay a small extra local fee to connue to belong to a chapter. In our case that extra cost is $5 per year. The way the renewal form is constructed it gives preference to the Naonal Member opon. The result is that in the first two months this has been implemented we have had four members transfer out of the chapter to Naonal Member status. I don’t know if they made this decision deliberately or accidentally. But it means they will no longer receive any communicaon from us through our newsleer on issues relevant to our area and our congressional districts. Nor will they get noficaons regarding our meengs. So I am asking you to do is this: When you get your renewal noce pay close aenon to the two opons and be sure to check the one that maintains your local chapter membership. Five dollars is a small price to pay for a year’s worth of access to our newsleer and the informaon we provide at our monthly meengs. If local NARFE chapters connue to lose members it will be impossible for us to connue operang at the local level, and I believe that will have a severe impact on NARFE’S ability to connue its mission. As we have seen recently the huge aendance at Congressional Town Hall Meengs across the country is having an effect on the polical posions of representaves of those Districts. All polics is local. If you are considering changing your membership to drop support of the local chapter I would appreciate a word from you on your reasoning. You can reach me at (661) 943-4897 or [email protected]. Thank you! ▪ Linda Ingram, 2nd VP Chapter Newsleer May - Jun 2017 Legislative President Roxie Patterson (661) 948-1979 [email protected] District VIII VP Linda Ingram (661) 943-4897 1st VP and Legislaon Randy Scott (661) 256-3507 2nd VP and Membership Linda Ingram (661) 943-4897 Secretary and Webmaster Nancy Bergren (661) 722-2913 Treasurer Betty McLaurin (661) 942-0658 Services Gary Darcy (661) 238-5561 Public Relaons Leslie Underwood Social & Sunshine VACANT Programs VACANT Alzheimer’s VACANT Historian VACANT Editor Stacey Norris (661) 350-5043 Membership Legislative Action Center - http://www.narfe.org/legislation/votervoice.cfm