April 3, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 58 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S2225-S2226]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Appealing Ruling of the Chair

  Mr. McCONNELL. I appeal the ruling of the Chair and ask for the yeas 
and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The question is, Shall the decision of the Chair stand as the 
judgment of the Senate?
  The yeas and nays have been ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Ms. Harris) 
is necessarily absent.

[[Page S2226]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 48, nays 51, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 61 Ex.]

                                YEAS--48

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Collins
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Jones
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--51

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     McConnell
     McSally
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Harris
       
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate overrides the decision of the 
Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.


                                 S. 972

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, earlier this week I introduced the 
bipartisan Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2019, and the 
acronym for that is RESA, or R-E-S-A.
  I am pleased to be joined by my colleague, Ranking Member Wyden of 
the Finance Committee, in introducing this very important piece of 
legislation. The workplace retirement system provides an effective way 
for employees to save for retirement. Not all workers have access to 
retirement plans, and some workers who have access to a plan don't 
always participate.
  The committee felt that we needed to do more to encourage and 
facilitate retirement savings. That is why we are providing new 
incentives for employers to adopt retirement plans. The bill also helps 
to reduce costs of operating these plans and creates new provisions to 
encourage workers to plan and to save for retirement.
  This bill has been a long time in the making. Work on it actually 
began shortly after the passage of the Pension Protection Act of 2006. 
So when I say a long time, if it actually started back there at that 
time, that is 13 years ago.
  Over several Congresses, the Finance Committee has held hearings on 
the retirement system and reviewed a number of proposals to improve the 
system. Many ideas were put forward. We examined each of them 
carefully, including through the work of the Finance Committee's Tax 
Reform Working Group on Savings and Investment, which did most of its 
work during the year 2015.
  The resulting proposals were brought together to form this bill that 
we call RESA. It was unanimously approved by the Finance Committee in 
2016. In the last Congress, many of us worked closely with former 
Senator Hatch, and chairman at that time, to advance this package. We 
came very close to an agreement last December, but, as a lot of times 
happens at the end of the year, it fell short due to politics and the 
process at that time. Passage of this important bill remains a top 
priority for me. I have continued working closely with Senator Wyden, 
the ranking Democrat, other committee members, and even colleagues in 
the House to maintain the momentum from the end of last year so that 
improvements in this bill can be signed into law without further delay.
  The RESA bill would reform our retirement savings laws in several 
important areas. For example, it would improve on an existing type of 
plan called a multiple employer plan, or as we say in finance, MEP. The 
bill would expand these plans so that employers can join together to 
sponsor a single retirement plan for their workers. These open MEPs 
would make it far more feasible for businesses of all sizes, and 
especially small businesses, to offer retirement plans by harnessing 
economies of scale and reducing unnecessary administrative burdens on 
employers.
  More importantly, these open MEPs would open the door for millions of 
Americans to save for retirement. Speaking of small businesses, the 
bill includes provisions designed to make it easier and more cost-
effective for smaller employers to sponsor a retirement plan. Small 
businesses, farms, and ranches, are, of course, vital to our economy. 
We need to encourage a level playing field so that workers and small 
businesses throughout our country have equal access to retirement plans 
as workers at Fortune 500 companies have.
  RESA also would create a new fiduciary safe harbor for employers that 
allow employees to invest in lifetime-income arrangements like 
annuities. In addition, the bill would expand the portability of 
retirement plan assets, including those annuities. That would allow 
workers, then, to keep their retirement savings when they change jobs 
throughout their career.
  This bill encourages employers to provide the kinds of tools and 
flexibility that employees need to plan for a financially secure 
retirement. RESA also would help employees to add to their retirement 
savings each year through automatic increases in contributions to 
401(k) plans. Also, to help workers plan better for retirement, the 
legislation would require employers to provide an estimate of how much 
the employee's account would provide during retirement if the employee 
invested the balance in an annuity.
  All of this is intended to help individuals get on the path of saving 
for a secure retirement during their working years, but it is also with 
an eye toward making sure that their savings will last once they 
retire. I should also note that this bill is paid for.
  This is the pay-for. The main offsetting provision involves an option 
under current law for a person to pass along his or her IRA or 401(k) 
account to a family member or other beneficiary. Under current law, the 
recipient of that account can keep the inherited funds in the tax-
deferred account and save for their own retirement if they take out a 
required minimum amount each year. That is often referred to as a 
``stretch IRA.''
  The bill maintains this savings option for people who inherit an IRA 
or retirement account, but it places a limit on how large an account 
can be inherited on a tax-protected basis. This is a commonsense 
approach to encourage the next generation to save for retirement while 
ensuring that the changes in this bill are fiscally responsible.
  Retirement security is a very important topic that is already getting 
a great deal of attention this year. The House Ways and Means Committee 
considered a retirement savings bill yesterday that is built on the 
provisions included in RESA, and I look forward to working with 
Chairman Neal of the House Ways and Means Committee to reconcile our 
bills and to get a final package to the President's desk.
  So, in closing, I want to sum by stressing that increasing long-term 
savings in America is critically important. We know that there are ways 
that we can improve our private retirement system to make it easier for 
Americans to save. The reforms in this bill represent a very important 
step forward in improving Americans' retirement security.
  I know that there are other Members with additional ideas for 
improving retirement security. I want those Members to know that 
regardless of this bill's passing, we are ready to consider those 
proposals and advancing those that will build on RESA and will help to 
attain the goal of ensuring that all Americans achieve a security 
retirement.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.