Secure Act 2.0 Starts to Take Shape in Senate

News May 26, 2022 at 04:21 PM
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The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee released Thursday a discussion draft of bipartisan retirement legislation that it hopes will be included in the Senate's version of Secure Act 2.0.

The HELP Committee package builds off the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2021, or Secure Act 2.0, which passed the House on March 29, as well as the Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement Act, or RISE Act, and the Retirement Security & Savings Act, introduced by Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md. and Rob Portman, R-Ohio.

HELP Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., plan to introduce and mark up final legislation in the coming weeks, they announced in a statement.

All or part of the Senate HELP bill will be incorporated into a larger Senate bill with provisions from legislation passed by the Senate Finance Committee, "largely the Portman-Cardin bill with some other Finance Committee additions)," an industry official told ThinkAdvisor.

Burr said in the statement that the HELP Committee retirement package "builds off of many bipartisan proposals to enhance Americans' access to retirement plans, strengthen the ability of small businesses to offer plans to their employees, and improve overall savings for retirees' golden years."

The recent "historic inflation for everyday essentials, like groceries and gas, reinforces the importance of financial planning and saving," Burr said. "I look forward to working with the Committee to further improve this discussion draft with significant and practical long-term retirement solutions."

Besides provisions on automatic enrollment and contribution arrangements, the draft bill updates the dollar limit for mandatory distributions from IRAs.

Under current law, employers may transfer former employees' retirement accounts from a workplace retirement plan into an IRA if their balances are between $1,000 and $5,000. The bill increases the limit from $5,000 to $7,000.

"We need to put families back on solid financial footing and use the tools we know work to help people put more money in their savings and retirement accounts — which is why this bipartisan package is so important," Murray added in the statement.

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