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For TSP investors, the Stable G fund was in the lead in 2015
The SI or the stable investment fund or the Government securities fund ( G Fund) is considered the most conservative choice for all the investors out there because it normally has the best returns and 2015 was no different for it.
G fund had the best returns:
Specifically, the G fund gained around 2.04 percent for the whole year while other funds that were linked to bond and stock indexes normally saw a lot of ups and downs for all the 401 (k) style program (for military and federal employees) investors.
We all are aware of the fact that the G fund is indeed the largest of the offerings made by TSP and it held around 35 percent of the 463 billion dollars that were on investment at the end of November last year; the month past which we don’t know anything.
The G fund is invested in a variety of government securities that make yield returns that are identical to those made by mid length government bonds. The reason why the losses don’t increases as the interest rates rise for it is the specific way the investments are made. The risk of enduring loss with respect to principal is considerably low.
After G fund came the C fund, which is also known as the common stock fund; it gained around 1.46 percent in 2015. The fund is responsible for tracking the S&P’s 500 index of all the large US firms, was responsible for holding around 28 percent of all the investor assets through and till the end of November.
The trends are estimated to be similar once we examine the results after the end of 2016 but if the interest rates go further up, we might have to see some deviations in the charts come the end of another fiscal year.
Disability Retirement Myths
It’s instilled in the human nature (some experts believe) to take some facilities for granted, something that disabled persons know all too well. For instance, we take our health for granted and suppose that if are healthy and don’t carry any disease, it’s because that’s how life normally is. When however we spend some time on the hospital bed yawing with pain and failing to drink a glass of water all by ourselves, we realize that health is something of fascinating importance.
For the federal employees, there are certain sources of getting health related insurance money. The FERS disability retirement is something that comes to mind when you put the keywords of “health” and “federal government” together. There are certain myths about the program though that we thought needed some clearance. Here are those myths:
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Your medical condition must be work-induced to get disability retirement:
This is probably the biggest misconception present in the minds of many employees. The disability that you might have encountered must have been because of your work; and this is not only inclusive of injuries but rather other stress related conditions like depression, cancer or diabetes can also be considered eligible. ‘
2. You don’t need to be qualified for the SS disability:
You need to also apply for the social security disability while applying for the federal one. This is often considered unimportant because you don’t even need to get approved.
- You can still be working:
This is a myth that is also often present. You don’t need to actually have stopped working to be eligible.
3.You don’t need to be completely disabled:
The last myth that is present in the federal minds is that a successful recipient needs to be completely disabled. However this is definitely not the case; even if you are able to walk and talk normally, you are still eligible if you have some other injury.
How to fund retirement accounts in 2016
You can’t make any retirement contributions for the previous year anymore but with the start of the New Year, the stage is set for you to make up your mind so as to where your money is destined to go. There are different retirement accounts options available at your disposal and you can choose from the 3 different IRA types.
Retirement accounts and where to fund:
Let’s start with the traditional deductible IRA. Its inception dates back to the early 1974 and if you are to contribute to an account, you must have earned some money and should be under 70 and a half in age. Here are the basic things about it that you should know:
- The money will grow tax deferred so this is something that you need to be completely aware of.
- All the contributions are from the pre-tax dollars.
- When you will withdraw, all the money will be taxed as if it was ordinary income.
- If you withdraw before the age of 39 and a half, you will face a 10 percent withdrawal penalty.
- A 50 percent penalty will be applicable to you if you take a MRD every year until you reach 70.
Now let’s talk about the traditional non-deductible IRA that came to centre stage in 1987 as a result of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Here are the things you need to know:
- The contributions for this account are from the after-tax dollars.
- The money once again will grow tax-deferred.
- Once again, when you withdraw you will be taxed just like normal income.
- The 10 percent penalty exists but the age is raised to 59 and a half.
- The 50 percent penalty persists but the age is changed to 70 and a half.
In 1997, we were introduced with the Roth IRA. This is probably the one you need to know about as there are many differences from the two traditional ones. Here are those differences:
- The money in the account will (apart from a few exceptions) will grow tax-free.
- If you withdraw money and you have kept the account open for at-least 5 years (and are at-least 59 and a half) your earnings won’t be taxed.
- A 10 percent early withdrawal penalty will be applicable if you withdraw before 59 and a half.
- Taking a RMD is not a requirement.
While there are things about the three different retirement accounts that might entice you, making the right choice is dependent on your needs but unanimously speaking a Roth IRA is the way to go.
OPM December retirement claims receives a small break
OPM received a slight remission in the number of retirement applications it received towards the end of the last year with the company continually slogging away at the claim backlog for the month of December.
OPM December claims received a break:
OPM received the lowest number of claims in December 2015 since December of 2014 i.e. 4753. The number was 4077 when reports were compiled a year before last month.
Around 6000 claims were processed during December 2015 though, and it left the backlog of unprocessed retirement cases at around 11 thousand which is a good enough figure to start off the New Year. OPM has been increasing their processing number throughout the year and in May it processed around 11 thousand claims which was also a record. Another interesting fact is that the organization processed around 78 percent of all the claims within 60 days or less in the last year. This rate was around 85 percent for 2014.
All in all, 2015 was a very big year for OPM with the data breach incident taking the spotlight away from all the other developments. It’s expected that the vigour with which the employees worked after the data breach is going to get extended with the start of the New Year. They have started encouraging people to drop in their retirement applications as their motivation to deliver has increased many folds. It’s hoped that they are not going to be faced with another predicament in the near future and that they will be able to help the federal officers get their retirements processed smoothly as well.
Retirement Social Security Filing Changes to be Aware of in 2016
If you were looking to retire in 2016, the new omnibus bill and other legislation that just passed in the last couple months may throw a wrench into your retirement funding plans. You may need to adjust your filing strategies accordingly to the rule changes as outlined below.
Suspending your Benefits
The first and possibly the largest change to Social Security filing strategies is that you can no longer suspend your benefits when you apply for them. The “File and Suspend” strategy would allow those seeking retirement to file and then immediately suspend their benefits, for those 66 and over. During the suspension, delay credits would accumulate giving you a larger benefit when you finally did start to collect your Social Security.
With the update repealing this strategy many retirees will need to rethink their retirement funding strategies. If you had a 401K or other pension fund that was going to be used upon retirement, until it ran out and then rely on the increased Social Security amount from the suspension, this is no longer possible. This essentially eliminates potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars for a couple over their lifetime. This strategy is currently set to end 1st May 2016. If you are 66 years or older prior to April 30, 2015, it is wise to ‘file and suspend’ as soon as possible to keep these options open.
This strategy affects most couples that were depending on this strategy for retirement. While the suspended benefits were accruing credits to the tune of 8% per year during suspension, spouses were also able to claim a benefit based on this reduced earnings record. The new law states that you need to be actually receiving the benefit in order for spouses to receive the benefit as well.
Restricted Application changes
The other strategy in use was called a “restricted application.” With this strategy you would apply to receive only your spousal benefit from Social Security allowing your own benefit to accrue credits as described above allowing half of a family to accrue an extra 8% a year in additional Social Security benefits. This was allowed up to as late as 70 years old significantly increasing benefits when they were actually taken at a later time.
This option will no longer be available to couples as of 1 January 2015. However if you are 62 or older by the end of 2015, this option will remain open to you. If so, it would be wise to explore your options with a financial advisor about which option would better suit your family. All those currently exercising these options will continue to be ‘grandfathered’ into the system allowing these strategies to continue for them.
Younger than 62 years old
If you are younger than 62 years old and are looking to retire in the next few years, you may have some tough choices. With the “file and suspend” option being removed it is a $9.5 Billion annual benefit being removed from retirees living allowances. If you were planning on using your share of these ‘extra’ benefits, you will need to recalculate your retirement income, needs and potentially even your retirement date.
These measures were targeted by the administration to put a stop to higher-income families from taking advantage of the loop-hole.
Is TSP liable to give investment advice
Is TSP liable to give investment advice
TSP has around 4.7 million members from all over the country and currently the administrators are discussing whether they should be offering investment advice to their members or not.
TSP to offer investment advice?
This was not announced publicly but was made public knowledge via a report that has been released on the 2015 Conference on Aging. It’s mentioned specifically that the Thrift Investment board is actually making the consideration whether they should provide personalized advice for investments or not.
TSP being the country’s biggest retirement plan (401(k) type) with around 454 billion asset money hasn’t got any real program via which they provide their members aid in choosing the right path while making investments and putting money in to the various TSP funds.
The closest TSP gets to giving advice is in the Lifecycle funds program. The TSP website lists the following paragraph about it: “We use professionally determined investment mixes that are tailored to meet investment objectives based on various time horizons. The objective is to strike an optimal balance between the expected risk and return associated with each fund,”
The board believes that one of the main reason retirees withdraw from their TSP accounts to put money elsewhere is that they are not guided enough. Many surveys done in the recent past have also indicated this lack of guidance to being a big reason why members don’t believe in TSP.
All things considered, we definitely believe that the TSP members require some sort of guidance from their fund managers about investments because this is something of substance and when there’s money involved everybody needs to be absolutely sure. In this regard, an executive order to offer formal guidance could be around the corner and we hope that for the benefit of the majority, it does get implemented soon.
ANY IDEAS ABOUT THE SAFEST CARS FOR RETIREES TO DRIVE
Toyota made it to the top of the safe to drive car list with Honda coming in second by The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The criteria used was CRASH WORTHINESS (how well the vehicle protects its occupants) and CRASH AVOIDANCE and MITIGATION (how well the vehicle prevents or lessens the severity of the crash).
Each year Federal retirees make up the largest group of persons moving into retirement. In addition to learning how to use benefits in retirement, they are looking for resources that best answer their needs. They are looking for safe affordable places to live and cars that give good mileage and offer the greatest possible degree of safety.
Although retirement may not be the best time to take on debt, it is a good time to purchase a reliable and safe vehicle to drive to avoid costly repairs. Retirement means that you won’t be getting a pay check every two weeks and retirement income is generally less than what you earned as a full-time regular employee, so spend wisely.
Many retirees use retirement as the opportunity to purchase the luxury car they could never afford during their work career. Lump sum payments that come from accrued annual leave may end up being quite a tidy bundle for a lot of Federal retirees. However, care should be taken to not spend that lump sum hastily because it just might be the bridge you need to carry you over until your annuity check start.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Dianna Tafazoli
TSP benchmarking and the advantages
The majority of the index funds (almost all) that are available through the TSP always make an attempt to duplicate a given index’s returns. An example of this is the S&P 500. There are some advantages associated with these funds; some are listed below.
Benefits of TSP benchmarking:
- Low costs: The biggest advantage in this regard could be that the index funds don’t cost much majorly because they don’t require the team to do much research. The higher the expense ratio of a fund goes, the better its performance is to provide a break-even with a fund that costs less.
- A low turnover: All the large cap indexes where there are very few alterations made, managers rarely sell stocks and buy other because they don’t feel the need. High turnover affects the performance badly because it encompasses all the trading costs.
- Low tax: If you have a high turnover providing fund, then you might be able to get good taxable gains. But, the better part is that the funds with low turnover generally end up being very tax efficient.
- Asset class exposure: If you invest in an index fund, you are surely going to get the return of the specific asset class. Take the S&P 500 index for example; if the large cap stocks perform good, then you are of course going to get a good return.
This indexing is not only limited to specific funds but it also provides some good benefits in the lifecycle funds.
The G fund is a different one and it isn’t one that fluctuates everyday with respect to the market but provides a fixed return monthly that’s also often loved by employees.
New coal leases halted on Federal land
The coal program was reviewed for the first time in three decades this last week and the government has ordered to put a pause on issuing coal leases on the federal land. This order is part of some of the other executive actions that have been taken with the sole purpose to fight climatic disorders.
No more coal leases on federal land:
This halt is something that was long coming. The coal leases were not stopped already because the previous governments didn’t see it to review the coal mining program and Obama finally decided that this needed looking in to. The halt could last around 3 years, as indicated by Sally Jewell, who is the Interior Secretary of the US. The officials are during this tenure going to find out how they can protect the stake of the tax paying community in coal sales that occur from public lands and how the burning of fuels actually worsens the climatic change.
This step is one taken in the right direction when you consider the fact that the federal land encompasses around 40 percent of the whole coal production of the country. The majority of the leases are on public lands in the Western states primarily Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico.
This review might be something very good in the longer run in the bid to fight climate change but sadly for the industry it has come at a time where they could have done well without it. Around 50 coal companies since 2012 have gone bankrupt after facing competition from natural gas and the regulations for clean air that have eventually led to the increased prices of fossil fuel burning.
All in all, we don’t believe that the government is going to cut back on its decision of making it last 3 years and it is a very calculated decision.
Want to recapture FERS service via redeposits? Here’s how!
Re-deposits have been allowed by the contemporary employees of the FERS since late 2009 so we can’t really say that it’s going to be news to many people. These employees include those that left government and withdrew their retirement contributions. Before 2009, only the people that came under CSRS could do so.
Recapture FERS service:
When you make such a redeposit, it makes the service laudable to determine whether the employee is eligible for retirement and also for the calculation of the annuity. There are some details that can’t be overlooked in this regard:
The first one is that this policy is only applicable to those officers that are covered by FERS on or after October 2009. Furthermore, it will only affect the benefits pertaining to a FERS coverage separation that would have occurred on or after the date. So, if you have retired before 28th October 2009, you can’t just recapture the time by making the deposit.
If you want to make redeposit then you need to fill out the FERS application that’s especially designed to allow employees to make deposits. You can find it in the forms section on the OPM website. The completed application would then have to be forwarded to the agency for approval and only then will it be processed.
The whole process is pretty flaw-proof and there aren’t any catches involved so if you are trying to make your mind on whether you should make a redeposit or not, know that there isn’t much that can go wrong. On the other hand, just to be sure that you are eligible for this program, you need to make sure that you meet all the preliminary conditions necessary for the application. The processing might take some time but the end result will be something that would be worth the wait.
CONGRESS WORKED TOGETHER -IT’S SNOWING UNITY IN WASHINGTON
The Washington Metropolitan area gets snow sometimes and plenty of, but seldom does it snow unity. Unity is a rare sighting in the nation’s capital particularly in the halls of Congress. Perhaps it was the spirit of the holiday season – Christmas and giving that brought the parties together to do something good for the country they could agree upon.
Whatever brought about the unity, we applaud the Congress’s ability to work together instead of against each other – a most welcomed change. The Congress signed a $1.8 trillion dollar federal spending and tax break bill on Friday December 18, 2015. The Members of Congress it seems remembered what representing their constituents is all about. Americans are tired of the bickering that goes on in Congress leaving very little time to get needed work done.
The talk of a government shut-down has simmered and there is little possibility of that happening in light of the Congress’s new found spirit of cooperation. Former Governor of Virginia, L. Douglas Wilder, recently asserted during a review of his latest book – that the talk of reaching across the aisle should not be a subject in Congress because there should be no aisle to reach across – simply putting forth work that represents a Government that is for the people, of the people and by the people.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Dianna Tafazoli
Earn the maximum amount of money from TSP matching contributions
Are you one of those FERS employees that are compensated more than most? And do you also contribute the maximum amount of money to your TSP account every year? There is some good news for you. You can stop losing matching contributions of the government by maxing your TSP out before the year ends.
Earn money from TSP matching contributions:
The government is liable to contribute around 5 percent of your pay check to the TSP after every pay period. Here’s how:
- There is a 1 percent automatic contribution that’s paid even if you are not contributing to your TSP.
- A dollar-for-dollar match applicable on 3 percent of your income that you add after every pay cycle.
- The next 2 percent of your income that you add each pay period will also have a fifty-cent on a dollar match.
So, if you contribute a certain amount of money that’s substantial then you are bound to lose some serious amounts of money to government contributions. Here’s how you can prevent this from happening:
First what you need to do is divide your salary by the number of pay dates and not the pay periods in a year. Normally there are around 26 pay dates. There are some cases when there are 27 days as well but let’s just stick to a 26 day one for this example. If you earn 110 thousand dollars in a year, then you will have to part with 693 dollars after every pay period. This will ensure that you receive around 5 percent government contribution for each of your pay period.
This strategy is of course not applicable to those who don’t earn a lot of money but for those who get compensated a substantial amount, this is certainly something to know about.
New Mexico planning to Sue the Federal Government
New Mexico has made it abundantly clear that it is intending to sue the Federal Government along with the two owners of the Colorado mines because of the spill of around 3 million gallons of toxic waste and metals in to the Animas River. The spill has been devastating and has polluted lands and rivers in four states.
New Mexico to sue the Federal Government:
This intent was made public by breaking the news out to papers and recently there have been strong claims that the Federal Government is soon going to get handed another law suit.
This spill took place when a clean-up crew over at the Gold King Mine released around 3 million gallons of harmful mine sludge and waste materials accidentally. This mixture contained heavy metals like cadmium, lead, arsenic, mercury, zinc and copper. This lead to the contamination of rivers across Colorado, New Mexico and Utah and it also led to the brief shutdown of the water supply across the states. Also, alarms were signaled making people aware that they could be facing agricultural difficulties in the near future.
The waste was most imminently present in the Animas river as it found its way through the Animas valley and in to New Mexico and the San Juan river. This eventually led to the contamination of many drinking water wells and its effects encompassed an area with a radius of around 100 miles. A lot of farmers were left with no way to irrigate their crops too.
The people of New Mexico have also been protesting in this regard and it’s expected that soon the government is going to take the action that has long been anticipated. It’s also expected that the federal government will negotiate its way around the matter and work out a plan that suits both parties.
VA Employees finally Receiving Pay from 2010
The Amarillo VA Healthcare system has waited almost 6 years since a 2010 law was passed in order to provide back pay, pay rate changes and other pay incentives to be applied, due to software issues. This only happened after the Federal government advised them on how to make changes to the system to allow for the changes.
The Original Act
The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010, signed into law by POTUS Obama heavily favored and supported veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan service. Its main focus was on the caregivers of these veterans, mental health services, women veterans, vets in rural areas, veterans that are homeless and for veteran research and education. It also implemented pay raises for a number of VA employees, but the VA was not advised on how to implement these with a switch over of computer software that was also taking place in the VA at the time.
The Local Amarillo VA
Spokesperson Barbara Moore for the Amarillo VA stated “we just got the guidance on how to fix that locally” and they further received instructions on how to make the manual calculations to offer the retroactive portion of the raises.
Employees of the VA and in Amarillo specifically have had a number of complaints that relate back to this 2010 legislation. Not only did they not receive pay raises from the legislation, but raises with promotions, incentive bonuses and differentials for night and weekend work was not being paid for existing employees. New employees were seeing these raises creating even more tension in the workplace.
A Software Issue
Essentially the issue at the heart of the matter was one of technical implementation of the new VA Time and Attendance System that is slowly being implemented across the VA system of healthcare nationwide. Unfortunately this software did not account for changes in policies from legislation. The software was not broken says Moore, but simply that “these formulas and calculations [were not] built in when we got it.”
The federal Office of Personnel Management released an update to the software and there were complaints immediately that some nurses in the system that were new-hires were getting paid more than their more senior counterparts. The OPM acknowledges that as soon as that was the case they started working to resolve the issue.
Recent Changes Equal Large Issue
The American Federation of Government Employees filed a grievance on 14 December 2015 that was recently settled. It was this action that prompted complaints, because there were a number of nurses that were supposed to get a promotional bump in pay and never received it as a result of this software issue.
Now that the issue is known, changes to the software have been instituted as well as manual directions on how to over-ride the system. Back pay retroactive to any agreements or legislation will be paid as administration catch up on these issues. Since the system is complex and multifaceted, Moore says, these issues could crop up in other VA locales across the country. If you are being affected by this issue, contact your supervisor immediately about your fair share.
The VA disability system panned by Lawmakers
The VA office of Inspector General is not entirely confident of the Veterans Benefits Management System despite the fact that there have been some significant reductions seen in the backlogged disability claims in recent months.
The VA disability system criticized:
The disability system has been subject to serious criticism from lawmakers and officials in the recent past and the VBMS price tag has also risen from around 580 million dollars to around 1.3 billion in recent months. Add this to the already decreasing number of tangible milestones, a lot of lawmakers have started to question the efficacy of the system and this endeavour at large.
Mark Takano had a lot to say in this regard during a VA hearing held on January 12th. He said that there was a paper-based system in place during the tenure of the last administration and this transition to an electronic system has already brought about so many problems that many are imminently going to follow. He further raised concerns by saying that there were already many problems present before the introduction of the electronic system that it was better if they spent their time figuring them out rather than adding new ones pertaining to the electronic filing.
Many experts and VA officials had nothing but “Aye” to say to the points raised by Mark and many other lawmakers have expressed their concerns in the same fashion as well. While the decision of transforming the whole system has already been made, people in general don’t want it to happen because where there are pros, there are some hidden cons that not many are aware of. Let’s hope that how so ever this pans out, it benefits the multitude of the VA officials and also deals with the concerns that are present in the minds of people like Mark.
TSP Financial Hardship Withdrawal – Do you qualify?
TSP Financial Hardship Withdrawal – Do you qualify?
There can be financial hardships for everyone. For Federal Employees – there is a special scenario in which you can make a TSP Financial Hardship Withdrawal from your TSP account to help offset these tough financial times. There are some requirements that you need to satisfy in order to be considered eligible for a TSP Financial Hardship Withdrawal though. Here are those requirements:
TSP Financial Hardship Withdrawal requirements:
The first requirement in this regard is a negative monthly cash flow that is ongoing for at-least some months now. Apart from this, the medical expenses (if you owe them still) that you need to pay are not covered by any insurance. If you are under a personal casualty loss, then again you should not be covered by any insurance. Finally all of your legal expenses that you have still not paid for the expected divorce or separation also come from your spouse.
There are some other requirements for a TSP Financial Hardship Withdrawal that also need to be mentioned:
- The minimum limit to withdraw is a thousand dollars.
- You can only withdraw the contributions (or the accrued earnings) that you yourself made.
- If you have two different TSP accounts, then you can only withdraw from the account that is related to your current employment (At the withdrawal time).
- You can only withdraw once in a tenure of 6 months.
There are some other things to remember in this regard. The withdrawal is also subject to the income tax of the federal government and at times, is also subject to the income tax. If you are under 59 and a half then you also have to pay a 10 percent withdrawal penalty.
While there are subtleties and complexities associated with the facility, it’s always comforting to know that you can actually make a withdrawal before time if you fall in the need for it.
New moms put at ease by Air force secretary for maternity leave
The Air Force has always been a department that has kept the interests of its constituents and employees at the top of the priority list. They are all set to make their own decision on the whole maternity leave thing if the Defense department fails to implement a new policy.
Air Force to put new moms at ease by introducing maternity leave:
This was made public knowledge by Secretary Deborah Lee James who ensured all the service members that even if the department didn’t approve anything, they would increase the maternity leave policy on their own to around 18 weeks. This would be a part of the Force of the Future program.
In the Air Force, like the military the contemporary procedure dictates giving around 6 weeks of leave for all the new mothers but this is about to change. The secretary said that this can happen in the near term as they have already given it a lot of thought. She said that it’s her duty to make sure this idea of hers is implemented and she has assured that it’s going to come sooner rather than later.
The defense department has already been pleaded and applied to a lot in this regard but this step that can be considered a bold solo initiative taken by Lee could go a long way in making the Defense department think about making this a common practice too. While new moms are absolutely thrilled to hear this, they have also expressed their heart-felt love for the strong Secretary who is making it possible for them. Steps like these should always be lauded and we wish Secretary Lee to enjoy excellent luck while making sure this idea of hers transforms into something real and makes the lives of women with infants to feed, easier.
Fed might increase interest rates again courtesy job growth
There has been a stark increase in the job growth rate in the country and this might end up paving the way for the Federal Reserve to increase the interest rates again. This is a great sign for the economy of the country as it promises to get better.
Job Growth rate to increase the interest rates:
The central bank also increased its rates for the first time in a tenure of over a decade and is probably going to continually increase the rates throughout the year.
The data released in this regard might indicate that there have been 200,000 new jobs added in the country only in the month of December.
The job growth rate is also not confined to one domain or one occupation; there has been significant advancements in almost all the fields of work. Janet Yellen, who is the chairman of the Central bank insists that the bank is going to keep increasing the rates periodically throughout the year.
It’s worth mentioning that the main of the indexes, the S&P 500 ended up at a lower closing rate for the year; economists have said that this is not attributable to the move by the Fed. The federal rates in this regard are also expected to grow with the passage of time.
All in all, the economy is expected to gain more solidarity through the New Year as more and more increases in the rates are being reported. The job growth looks like an ongoing process as well with the government making it abundantly clear that it wants to keep providing people with opportunities to make a profitable living. It’s hoped that whatever transpires through the fiscal year benefits the majority of the population in every way.
Scott Rigell to retire in 2017
Scott Rigell is set to take retirement after the commencement of this term. He has been incumbent in the office for 6 years now. This announcement was made by him in a letter to the constituents.
Scott Rigell will retire in 2017:
Rigell has always been considered a man of his words but pertaining to a pledge he took in 2010, when he joined, an exception to his values can be observed. He pledged that he is going to serve no more than 6 terms but has now decided to leave after completing three. The reason he mentioned for this early departure is that he believes he has done and accomplished whatever he had planned, if not more. He mentioned that he had made it his ambition to establish a strong House majority that would create a strong balance that the party would benefit from; the current situation reflects the achievement of his objectives, hence being high time to leave!
He mentioned some notions in his farewell words as well. He indicated that the discretionary spending has decline since the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives; it was the same year he had joined Congress.
Rigell is a representative of Virginia’s 2nd District which is inclusive of the Eastern Shore and the Virginia Beach. Democrats have always made this area a target but Rigell’s district has become more Republican because of an improved congressional map that the federal judges have imposed on the state. His office also claims that the district consists of the highest number of active and retired military personnel compared to others.
While Scott was a man known for his strength of character and diligence when it came to duty, his was always a very vibrant presence in the congress as well. We hope and wish that he leads a happy life ahead.
