Secure Act Savior Could Be Upcoming Appropriations Bill

Industry lobbyists will be pushing in September to see that the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (Secure) Act of 2019, the big retirement bill that’s been languishing in the Senate, gets attached to an upcoming must-pass appropriations bill.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, “is working with his colleagues to get several holds lifted on the [Secure Act] legislation and to get the bill signed into law as soon as possible,” a Grassley spokesman told ThinkAdvisor Monday.

President Donald Trump signed a two-year, $2.7 trillion budget agreement in early August that wards off $126 billion in automatic spending cuts and suspends the debt ceiling through July 2021. But the legislation did not include funding for federal agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, which means a government shutdown could still be in the offing on Sept. 30, the 2019 fiscal year-end.

“The contentious atmosphere in D.C. causes each party to dig their heels in to extract even the smallest of ideological wins,” Jeff Bush of The Washington Update told ThinkAdvisor. “So the risk of a government shutdown is real, but I believe it is unlikely.”

What’s more likely to pass in September, Bush continued, “are a few, less contentious appropriation bills. The more disagreed upon appropriations, perhaps Health and Human Services, Labor and Homeland Security, may require a continuing resolution.”

The CR “will give appropriators more time to work through the line item minutia of appropriations,” Bush added.