Brian Graff, CEO of the American Retirement Association, is set to appear next week before Congress to advocate for the retirement policy priorities of the ARA.
The hearing, entitled “Building on Bipartisan Retirement Legislation: How Can Congress Help?,” is scheduled for Wednesday, July 28, at 10:00 a.m. (ET) before the powerful Senate Finance Committee. Other witnesses scheduled to appear at the July 28 hearing include:
- Aliya Robinson, Senior Vice President of Retirement and Compensation Policy at The ERISA Industry Committee;
- David Certner, Legislative Counsel and Policy Director at AARP; and
- Tobias Read, who is the Oregon State Treasurer, and was a chief sponsor of OregonSaves, which became the first operating state-sponsored retirement program in 2017.
A livestream of the hearing will be available at the following link: http://finance.senate.gov/hearings.
The Committee, which has jurisdiction over broad range of policy issues—including retirement tax provisions under the Internal Revenue Code as well as Social Security issues—is gearing up to potentially act on its own version of the SECURE Act 2.0. That bill is the bipartisan retirement security legislation that was passed by the House Ways and Means Committee in early May and is pending before the full House of Representatives.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who is chairman of the Finance Committee, in recent weeks has touted his own set of priorities and is expected to release comprehensive retirement savings legislation sometime soon that could potentially move on its own or be added to the broader infrastructure legislation that is expected to move through Congress this fall.
One priority for Wyden is his Encouraging Americans to Save Act, which would expand the Saver’s Credit to make it refundable, but the money would have to be put into a retirement savings vehicle. He is expected to introduce a new version of this legislation this week.
Both Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) are senior members of the Finance Committee, and have noteworthy influence when it comes to retirement policy. The pair on May 21 reintroduced their Retirement Security and Savings Act (S. 1770), which includes more than 50 provisions designed to strengthen Americans’ retirement security. Several provisions in the Portman-Cardin bill also overlap with the SECURE Act 2.0.
Wyden also was an original cosponsor of the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act (RESA), which, in many respects, was the precursor to the SECURE Act enacted in 2019, with both bills containing overlapping provisions supported by members from both parties. He has, however, been critical of the recent reports of mega-Roth IRAs, and has vowed to revisit the issue to limit how much the so-called super-wealthy can invest in them.
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