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Legislation
It didn’t happen until late in the evening, but the U.S. House of Representatives voted on June 22 on overturning President Obama’s veto of Congress’ resolution to kill the Labor Department’s fiduciary regulation.The party line vote — 239-180 — fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to...
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The Senate Special Committee on Aging held a hearing on June 15 to examine ways to leverage prizes and technology to influence savings behavior.The hearing featured testimony from Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies President Catherine Collinson that focused on a new research report...
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Last week, House Republicans released the first of six documents detailing their policy agenda, a portion of which included recommendations to “build retirement security through the private retirement system.” The most notable aspect of the report, however — a blueprint from the Task Force on...
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You couldn’t find two U.S. senators much farther apart on the ideological spectrum than Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) — but they have teamed up on bipartisan legislation to make retirement saving easier.Specifically, Warren and Lee have introduced the Graduate Student Savings Act...
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As expected (and promised), President Obama has vetoed Congress’ resolution that would have nullified the Labor Department’s fiduciary regulation.“The outdated regulations in place before this rulemaking did not ensure that financial advisers act in their clients’ best interests when giving...
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Republicans in Congress continued their campaign to kill the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule — and managed to pull three Senate Democrats over to their side.The Senate voted 56-41 on May 24 to formally disapprove of the rule under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), with three Democrats...
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The tax incentives currently extended to workplace retirement plans are a potential casualty of a tax reform proposal that was the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing that included testimony from American Retirement Association Director of Retirement Policy Judy Miller.Under the unlikely...
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Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, is leading a call for President Obama to issue an executive order to require government contractors to auto-enroll employees in retirement plans.In a May 5 letter signed by more than 65 Democratic lawmakers, Crowley urges the...
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The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution April 28 disapproving of the Labor Department’s final fiduciary regulation. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 21 had passed H. J. Res. 88 by a vote of 22-14.The party line vote of 234-183 was enough to pass the measure...
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Legislation before the U.S. House would exclude Pension and Benefit Guaranty Corporation receipts and disbursements from the federal budget.H.R. 4955, the Pension and Budget Integrity Act of 2016, was introduced on April 15 by Rep. James Renacci (R-Ohio).The bill notes that ERISA did not include...
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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on April 20 issued a report saying that two measures introduced in the House earlier this year that would require congressional approval of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule and would provide alternative fiduciary protection for consumers would...
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The House Education and the Workforce Committee on April 21 passed a resolution introduced just two days earlier that is intended to block the fiduciary rule the Department of Labor (DOL) issued in final form on April 6.By a 22-14 vote, the committee approved H.J. Res. 88, the measure introduced by...
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A group of Republican senators has introduced a resolution to stop the Department of Labor’s (DOL) new conflict-of-interest rule.The resolution (S.J. Res. 33), which Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) introduced April 18, has 37 co-sponsors, including Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo...
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The fiduciary regulation may be final, but a trio of Republican lawmakers have introduced a resolution to block it.Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, along with Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Tax...
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The Golden State has taken another step on the road to implementing a state-run retirement program.The California Secure Choice Board unanimously recommended that the state legislature move forward with the plan it was directed to explore under a 2012 law, submitting letters identifying its...
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The 2016 election is still months away, but talk of tax reform — and its potential to undermine incentives for retirement savings — is “back” on Capitol Hill.The Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, Kevin Brady (R-Texas) intends to lay the groundwork for tax reform this year, so that a...
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Last week, a harmful provision that could have extended Connecticut’s state-run retirement coverage mandate to ERISA plans was dropped from the bill reported out of committee. The move follows March 8 testimony in Connecticut by the American Retirement Association on the harmful effects the...
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UPDATE, MARCH 14: The provision described below was subsequently withdrawn. For more on that development, click here. The Connecticut Retirement Security Board has taken another step forward with its implementation plan by introducing legislation creating the Connecticut Retirement Security...
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Even as the publication of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiduciary rule nears, the GOP is gearing up to undermine the funding for its implementation.House Republican leaders are urging rank-and-file GOP lawmakers to back a budget resolution that provides $1.07 trillion in discretionary spending...
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The Obama administration’s final budget wasn’t a complete retread of its prior retirement plan proposals, but there wasn’t much good news for employer-sponsored retirement plans.Small business owners and small business retirement plans were once again targeted by a proposal that would limit the...
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