One issue that has been moving methodically (and under the radar) towards becoming law: private retirement reform.
The 116th Congress will not be known for lack of tumult, but one issue has been moving methodically – and under the radar – towards becoming law. Lawmakers and observers are voicing optimism that closely linked private retirement reform bills, one from the House Ways and Means Committee, and one from the Senate Finance Committee, will soon be merged and sent to President Trump's desk.
"The outlook is very kind of ordinary and that's so extraordinary now," says Gordon Gray, a former Republican policy advisor in the Senate and now the Director of Fiscal Policy at American Action Forum. He added “we have our bill, the House has theirs and eventually it will get to conference. It's like how a bill becomes a law."
Lawmakers on both sides are also pushing provisions to provide tax credits to small businesses to make it more affordable for them to set up their own retirement plans. Shai Akabas, who steers the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings, noted that “allowing people to sort of walk and chew gum at the same time when it comes to both making progress on their student debt but also make inroads on their retirement can be a useful policy goal to have.”
Lawmakers are also considering increasing the age when IRA and 401 holders must begin to withdraw from their account and pay taxes. Currently, required minimum distributions begins at age 70 ½. The House bill would increase the limit to age 72. On the Senate side, the proposal from Senators Portman and Cardin would increase the age to 72 in 2023 and then up to age 75 by 2030.
These are changes that are “not going to be as immediately evident to the average American,” Akabas said. “But they could have important effects down the road when we talk about gradually increasing the access that people have to a workplace retirement account and the structure of those accounts.”The plan being hammered out focuses on only a fraction of the issues facing the retirement system.
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