House Panel Passes Retirement Bill

The House Education and Labor Committee passed Wednesday the Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement, or RISE, Act, bipartisan legislation that creates an online searchable database to locate lost retirement accounts and raises the cap for transferring former employees’ retirement funds to an IRA from $5,000 to $7,000.

The RISE Act “is an important building block for passing the next bipartisan retirement package and expanding retirement savings opportunities for Americans,” Andy Banducci, Senior Vice President of Retirement and Compensation at the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), said Wednesday in a statement.

Banducci said the legislation is “a critical next step in building on the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019 and promoting the retirement security of workers and retirees.”

RISE, H.R. 5891, was introduced by Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va.; ranking member Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.; Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee Chair Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif.; and subcommittee ranking member Rick Allen, R-Ga.

Scott said Wednesday during the bill’s markup that according to the Government Accountability Office, more than 25 million people who changed jobs between 2004 to 2014 left behind one or more retirement accounts.

The RISE Act, “also clarifies rules regarding the recovery of inadvertent overpayments to minimize hardships for retirees,” Scott explained, and requires the Labor Department “to review guidance from the mid-1990’s regarding pension risk transfers.”

The bill also “expands opportunities for our nation’s roughly 25 million part-time workers to join retirement savings plans,” Scott added.

He stated that the RISE Act “is not the final word on our Committee’s commitment to improving and expanding access to secure retirement,” noting that committee members “will have additional ideas, and we will continue working with them in the months ahead.”

Wayne Chopus, president and CEO of the Insured Retirement Institute, said Wednesday on the RISE bill that “the momentum to address retirement insecurity is growing.”

RISE “further demonstrates the bipartisan commitment in Congress to find and act on solutions to help America’s workers and retirees achieve economic equity and strengthen their financial security during their retirement years,” Chopus said.

As IRI notes, the RISE Act would also help expand access to workplace retirement plans for charitable, educational and nonprofit organizations. Several provisions in the RISE Act are also included in H.R. 2954, Secure Act 2.0, which passed the House Ways and Means Committee in May.