Thrift Savings Plan returns mostly positive in November

Thrift Savings Plan returns mostly positive in November

The I Fund remains the biggest winner for the year with a total increase of 28.54%.

Michele Sandiford

December 2, 2025 1:41 pm

< a min read

• Most funds in the Thrift Savings Plan saw minimal growth in November, with 15 of 16 coming in higher than where they finished in October. But no fund saw an increase greater than 0.64% for the past 30 days. And only the S fund saw a month over month decline, dropping 0.45%. The I Fund remains the biggest winner for the year with a total increase of 28.54%, while four L Funds also produced returns of greater than 20% in 2025.
• The Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles are rolling out on routes across the country. USPS said more than 35,000 of those vehicles are out on the road. That’s about a third of its new fleet. More than 100,000 vehicles will be deployed by 2028 and nearly half of them will be electric vehicles. Congress gave USPS $3 billion in 2022 to buy more electric vehicles than it could afford to buy on its own.
• The Trump administration is taking down yet another government program tailored toward early-career employees and talent development in the federal workforce. The Office of Personnel Management will soon sunset the Federal Academic Alliance. This is a governmentwide program that let federal employees access advanced degree opportunities at reduced tuition costs. The agency attributed its cancellation decision to a low participation rate, as well as more internal training options becoming available to employees over time. Employees currently in the program have until Jan. 19 to enroll into programs using the benefits through the end of their current academic term. OPM will shut the program website and other assets down by Jan. 30.
• The Department of Health and Human Services faces a months-long backlog of reasonable accommodation requests from its employees. HHS said it will centralize the processing of reasonable accommodation requests on behalf of its component agencies. HHS said it’s taking on a backlog of more than 3,000 requests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s not clear how long it will take HHS to review each individual request. But the department said it will need about six to eight months to clear the backlog. A CDC memo said telework “should not be given as an interim accommodation,” while a reasonable accommodation request is under review.

]]>

• The Coast Guard is at risk of more cost overruns on one of its newest class of ships. That new warning comes from the Government Accountability Office, which said the service is pressing ahead with plans for its Offshore Patrol Cutter without a stable design. GAO said moving ahead with the second stage of the acquisition program too quickly could mean a repeat of some of the missteps the service suffered during the program’s first phase. In stage one, starting construction before designs were stabilized wound up leading to expensive rework.
• The Defense Department is putting more than $400 million toward immediate barracks repairs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the department is also launching more than $800 million in critical barracks renovations. Hegseth recently stood up a “barracks task force,” which he said has completed wall-to-wall assessments of facilities across the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force and the 18th Airborne Corps, with Reserve and National Guard inspections expected to wrap up by the end of January. “In our first 30 days, we’ve purchased new furnishings and mattresses for 81 barracks, reaching more than 15,000 service members, and we’ve executed $101 million of quality of life improvements since October 27 that includes new door locks in 10 barracks, affecting over 6,000 war fighters, new security systems in 13 barracks, which is peace of mind for another 1,500 plus service members. I’m getting monthly reports to confirm the work is actually getting accomplished.”
• The Marine Corps is encouraging qualified Marines to move into counterintelligence and human intelligence roles. The Corps’ Manpower and Reserve Affairs has identified these positions as a critical specialty. The service said the demand for Marines in counterintelligence and human intelligence roles will remain high for the foreseeable future. Officials say Marines selected for these roles will receive extensive training and have opportunities to support Joint Forces and interagency partners. Marines who make the switch could earn over $100,000 in bonuses.
• The Defense Department wants to shake up how it works with value-added resellers. The Pentagon is considering placing a 5% cap on most fees charged by resellers starting with a specific special item number, or SIN, for IT products. A draft memo obtained by Federal News Network said this cap would only apply to IT products bought through GSA’s schedule contract. The initial focus of this reseller cap would focus on SIN 33411, which is for the purchasing of new electronic equipment, including desktops, laptops and servers. DoD said it spent about $2 billion in fiscal 2024 through the GSA schedule on these technology products.

Copyright
© 2025 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.