Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), long a champion of retirement reform efforts on Capitol Hill, is making one last push to get the latest efforts across the finish line before retiring when his term ends later this year.
In a new op-ed for The Hill, Portman and fellow Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) highlighted the need for the Senate to pass bipartisan legislation to update the country’s retirement system to help Americans better save for retirement.
Their bipartisan Retirement Security and Savings Act was passed unanimously by the Senate Finance Committee in June as part of the broader Enhancing American Retirement Now (EARN) Act. The House of Representatives previously passed companion legislation in March. In the op-ed, the senators urge the Senate to pass the EARN Act so it can be finalized and signed into law by President Biden.
“Congress has an opportunity to provide Americans with greater financial security in their retirement. We have been working together for 30 years to strengthen America’s retirement system,” Portman and Cardin write in the op-ed. “Our latest bill, the Retirement Security and Savings Act, includes dozens of provisions to help improve retirement security for all Americans. Most of this legislation was included in the Enhancing American Retirement Now (EARN) Act, which was unanimously passed by the Senate Finance Committee in June. Its House companion passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis by a 414 to 5 vote in March, a rare feat in a deeply divided Congress.”
This is all part of the so-called “SECURE Act 2.0” package, meant to build on the improvements made in the 2019 SECURE Act. The EARN Act, along with the Senate HELP Committee’s RISE & SHINE Act (approved by that committee in June) and the companion bill (Securing a Strong Retirement Act) passed in March by the House of Representatives—are being reconciled by both chambers to form the vast majority of the comprehensive SECURE 2.0 legislation.
Optimism remains high from all sides that a final bill will be ready for President Joe Biden’s signature before the end of the year, likely to pass Congress as part of a post-midterm election bill cleaning up various outstanding issues before the new Congress begins in January.
Retirement Security and Savings Act reforms
Portman and Cardin say their particular piece of legislation will improve the U.S. retirement system by (1) helping people who have saved too little to save more by expanding the Saver’s Credit, a tax credit to help more lower-income Americans increase their retirement savings; (2) strengthening the tax credit small businesses receive for starting a new retirement plan and creating a tax credit and legal relief for small-business plans that cover more workers; (3) helping individuals to save longer for retirement by improving lifetime income options for those at risk of outliving their savings, and; (4) providing more certainty and flexibility during Americans’ retirement years.
“We hope the Senate will pass this legislation soon so it can be finalized and signed by President Biden before the end of the year.”
The senators also pointed out that the bill also requires employers to allow part-time workers who have completed two years of service to participate in 401k plans.
“This legislation improves the retirement system, providing more tools to live comfortably in their retirement years,” the op-ed continues. “This bill will help individuals save longer for retirement by improving lifetime income options for those at risk of outliving their savings, raising the required minimum distribution age from 72 to 75, protecting retirees who received overpayments through no fault of their own, and creating a national database for employees to find lost retirement accounts.”
The senators conclude by saying their bipartisan approach will provide new opportunities to save for those who need it the most. “We hope the Senate will pass this legislation soon so it can be finalized and signed by President Biden before the end of the year.”
The full op-ed can be found here.
Partisan gridlock behind Portman retirement
Notably, a primary reason Portman said he chose not to seek a third term in the Senate is because “it has gotten harder and harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress on substantive policy,”he said in announcing his retirement back in January 2021.
“We live in an increasingly polarized country where members of both parties are being pushed further to the right and further to the left, and that means too few people who are actively looking to find common ground,” Portman said at the time. “This is not a new phenomenon, of course, but a problem that has gotten worse over the past few decades.”
Portman and Cardin were honored with the Insured Retirement Institute’s 2021 Champions of Retirement Security Award for a second time, as a testament to their long-standing bipartisan commitment, advocacy, and leadership to advance policies that address the retirement anxiety felt by millions of America’s workers and retirees.
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