The House of Representatives passed the SECURE Act by a near-unanimous 417-3 vote back in May. But three months later, the would-be landmark retirement reform bill remains stalled in the Senate.
The SECURE Act could die in the upper chamber if it is not brought up or passed by a floor vote, unanimous consent, as an updated Senate bill or get attached to another bill that must pass (ie: one of the dozen 2020 spending bills during the upcoming annual appropriations process).
Getting it attached to one of the spending bills in September may be the SECURE Act’s best hope, as the appetite for getting it passed by unanimous consent seems to be diminishing.
There seems to be a variety of “behind-the-scenes” political factors at work that could be keeping the bill from being brought up for a vote. But it appears to boil down to two key reasons (discussed below), and what happens next as the Senate returns from its August recess is, at this point, anybody’s guess.
Mitch “Grim Reaper” McConnell won’t bring it up for a vote
The SECURE Act has no chance at making it to President Trump’s desk if it is never brought up for a vote in the Senate, and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t exactly appear to be champing at the bit to bring it to the floor.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took some pointed shots at the powerful senator in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky over the weekend.
“McConnell can vote any way he wants on an issue but what I find really outrageous and extremely undemocratic is his obstructionism and his refusal to allow major legislation to come to the floor for a debate and for a vote,” Sanders told Hill.TV during an interview from Louisville on Monday.
While Sanders was not referring specifically to the SECURE Act during the interview, he said he came to Kentucky to ask the people to demand that the Senate allow real debate on the floor so laws can be passed to help working Americans.
“While enormous problems face this country—everybody knows it—there’s very little that’s going on in the Senate. It is a do-nothing body and that is because of McConnell,” Sanders said.
McConnell is no stranger to refusing to take up bills passed by the House, and has embraced his reputation as “The Grim Reaper” for Democratic legislative priorities.
“I am indeed the ‘Grim Reaper’ when it comes to the socialist agenda that they have been ginning up over the House with overwhelming Democratic support, and sending it over to America—things that would turn us into a country we have never been,” McConnell said in an interview on Fox News Channel back in June.
Perhaps turnabout is fair play. During the 2013-2014 congressional sessions a Democratic majority in the Senate led by then-Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, systematically blocked a series of conservative priorities passed by the GOP-controlled House.
While it’s no big surprise McConnell is putting the brakes on legislation involving Democratic priorities such as election security, gun control, single-payer health care and the New Green Deal, to name a few, it is less clear why he has ignored legislation with such strong bipartisan support as the SECURE Act.
Perhaps it is a fear of eating up precious floor time with lengthy discussions on the bill’s controversial provisions. McConnell would rather spend the floor time getting President Trump personnel and judge appointees confirmed.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chair the Senate Finance Committee and a supporter of the SECURE Act, told a National Association for Fixed Annuities audience as they headed to Capitol Hill for their annual lobbying day in June that he hoped the SECURE Act would pass by unanimous consent, and there is a chance McConnell could make it happen if the “holds” on the bill were to be removed.
Absent that, the next option would be a very short debate and amendment process, but he doesn’t think it would be short and told ThinkAdvisor “McConnell’s not going to bring it up under those conditions,” as he wants to preserve valuable floor time for other priorities.
Grassley said the third option is to attach the SECURE Act to another piece of legislation—a la one of the must-pass spending bills coming up during the annual appropriations process. “This is such an important piece of legislation, if we have to wait and get it into some must-pass piece of legislation, then that’s where it’ll have to go.”
Still, there’s no guarantee the Senate will have a sincere interest for tacking on the SECURE Act to one of those bills.
The bill’s unresolved “holds”
Grassley is reportedly still trying to get the “holds” placed on the SECURE Act by a handful of Senators lifted (read about the holds here). It only takes one Senator to sideline the “unanimous consent” route, there are at least these three and possibly more (they don’t have to be publicly disclosed):
- Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz objects to the last-minute removal of a provision in the house bill that would have expanded the use of 529 plans. He wants it added back in, along with a Gold Star tax fix that would prevent children and spouses of fallen service members from getting hit with unexpectedly high tax bills following recent tax reform changes.
- Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey also placed a hold over Gold Star tax fix concerns, and has expressed his dislike for forcing people to take out retirement funds handed down to them and pay penalties on them (the bill’s elimination of the Stretch IRA). Toomey, who has reportedly been frustrated with a lack of debate on other measures this year, wants a discussion, which is not music to the ears of McConnell.
- Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee reportedly placed a hold as well, but the reason for his hold has not been identified and he has not commented on the issue.
While SECURE Act supporters—including some Senators and industry advocacy groups—have been trying to resolve the “holds” so McConnell might be able to get it passed via unanimous consent and not have to spend “valuable floor time” discussing it, there has been no news of movement on getting any of the holds lifted during the Senate’s six-week August recess that ends after Labor Day.