On the heels of the House’s overwhelmingly bipartisan passage of H.R. 2954, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA) penned an opinion piece in the Boston Globe touting this retirement security win for the American people.
Chairman Neal writes:
“As our nation continues to build back from the devastation of COVID-19, Congress should address a key issue that will strengthen Americans’ financial security and resiliency: retirement policy.
“There’s a retirement crisis in the United States that began long before the pandemic upended our economy. Millions of Americans are on course either to lack the financial ability to retire or to experience a significant drop in income when they are no longer able to work. In fact, roughly half of working-age U.S. households are at risk of being unable to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living in retirement, and 31 percent of workers have no retirement savings at all.
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“After a lifetime of hard work, Americans in their old age shouldn’t have to wonder how they’ll afford to put food on the table, pay for health care, or keep a roof over their heads.
“This week the House passed legislation to make it easier for more Americans to save for a financially secure retirement and have peace of mind in their later years. The Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022 is bipartisan Ways and Means legislation that will go a long way in improving workers’ long-term financial wellbeing.
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“Many refer to this legislation as ‘SECURE Act 2.0’ because it builds on the bipartisan Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, which was signed into law at the end of 2019. That bill laid a strong foundation for the work we’re continuing this week. It gave 4 million more Americans the opportunity to save for retirement through their employers, and an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 new retirement accounts will be formed.
“The Ways and Means Committee’s work in the retirement space is an increasingly rare example of members crossing party lines to achieve substantial policy progress for the American people. I am proud to have led this effort, which will vastly improve the financial security of workers in the Commonwealth and across the nation.”
A one-page summary of the legislation is available HERE.
A section-by-section summary can be found HERE.
Full text of the bill is available HERE.
Original source can be found here.
