Congress may tell staffers at the U.S. Department of Labor to come up with ideas for new, more portable retirement plans.
The Labor Department retirement plan lab provision is part of the explanatory notes attached to a big new spending package — the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 — that includes a 2,741-page PDF file on the House Rules Committee website.
The CAA 2022 package could also include material from a large collection of smaller PDF files posted on the main House "Bills to Be Considered on the House Floor" website.
House leaders are trying to pass the spending package today, because the law that now funds government operations is set to expire Friday.
The House is also trying to pass a shorter bill that would simply fund the government through March 15, to give the Senate time to work on the bigger spending package.
The retirement plan lab provision is on page 9 of one of two Division H PDFs on the main House bills-to-be-considered site.
House members say in a section of the explanatory notes on "Worker Access to Retirement Plans and Other Benefits," that many workers lack access to the kinds of retirement plans available through full-time employment.
"The portability of benefits is an important feature of retirement savings, workers compensation, health insurance, income security and other work-related benefits," according to the text.
The provision would direct the Labor Department chief evaluation officer, the Employee Benefits Security Administration and other department offices to give Congress a detailed report on the problem within six months and provide recommendations for retirement savings plan pilot programs.
Here's a look at some of the other sections of interest to insurance and retirement specialists.
1. Adjustable Rate (LIBOR) Act
This section, on page 1954 of the Rules Committee PDF, would provide a framework for helping the Federal Reserve Board replacing the Libor interest benchmark program, which is shutting down, with a new benchmark based on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Secured Overnight Financing Rate benchmark program.
