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Legislation
House Budget Committee ranking member Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) unveiled a set of tax proposals Jan. 12 that are said to be designed, at least in part, to redistribute current tax breaks for the wealthy to middle-class workers.While the “action plan” includes proposals that could draw bipartisan...
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Retiring Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-IA) signature piece of retirement legislation, the USA Retirement Funds Act, has found a champion to carry it into the next Congress.Harkin, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions (HELP) Committee, might have been pleased to see that...
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While finalizing many of the details of the MyRA program, Treasury and the Department of Labor (DOL) may have unearthed some serious new questions.These concerns stem from an information letter from the DOL to Treasury answering two key questions about the MyRA program: whether the retirement...
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Largely overlooked in the flurry of lame duck activity by Congress is a bill that creates a new kind of savings account for those with disabilities.Congress overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation during its lame duck session that would give states the ability to create a new tax-advantaged...
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With just days to go before the end of the 113th Congress, two senior members of the House Ways & Means Committee have introduced a bipartisan comprehensive retirement bill.The Small Businesses Add Value for Employees (SAVE) Act of 2014 (H.R. 5875), sponsored by Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Dave...
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Lawmakers have crafted and approved a sweeping bipartisan solution to address the mammoth funding shortfalls of the multiemployer plan system — a solution that is likely to have a long-term impact on defined benefit pension plans for both single and multiemployer arrangements.The changes mean that...
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Legislation working its way through Congress designed to avoid a government shutdown also contains some pension plan provisions.While the driver of the pension agreement is some significant multiemployer pension reforms, the amendment also includes provisions applicable to single-employer pension...
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By a large bipartisan majority, the U.S. House of Representatives last week passed tax-extender relief legislation that includes a provision that would affect multiemployer pension plan funding.The legislation, H.R. 5771, the Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014, was supported by 202 Republicans and...
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Five Senate Finance Committee members are asking Treasury Secretary Jack Lew for some retirement plan relief.The letter — signed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) — cites...
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When the 113th Congress wraps up in December, it won’t have much to show for its term. Will the 114th Congress that convenes in January be any different? Will Congress use retirement savings as its own piggy bank, or can we hope for something better? Might there even be real progress in expanding...
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