Senators Reintroduce Retirement Security & Savings Act

The bill seeks to allow people who have saved too little to set aside more for retirement.


The latest congressional bill seeking to help bolster Americans’ retirement savings is the Retirement Security & Savings Act, which is intended to allow people to save more and help small businesses offer 401(k)s and other retirement plans, among other provisions.  

The bill was introduced by US Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and comes a week after Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire; and James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, introduced the Improving Access to Retirement Savings Act. And earlier this month, the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously passed the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2021, also known as the “SECURE Act 2.0.”

Cardin and Portman have introduced the Retirement Security & Savings Act, also known as the Portman-Cardin bill, in previous sessions of Congress.

The bill seeks to create an incentive for employers to offer a more generous automatic enrollment plan and receive a safe harbor from expensive retirement plan rules. It also provides a tax credit for employers that offer safe harbor plans starting at 6% of pay in addition to the existing safe harbor at 3%. And for retirees who have fallen behind in their retirement savings, the bill would increase “catch-up” contribution limits to $10,000 from $6,000 for individuals with 401(k) plans who are older than 60.

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Additionally, the proposed legislation would seek to help employees trying to save for retirement while paying off student loans by allowing employers to make a matching contribution to workers’ retirement accounts based on their student loan payment.

It would also establish a three-year, $500 per-year tax credit for small businesses that automatically re-enroll plan participants into the employer plan at least once every three years, and it would expand the eligibility of 401(k)s to include part-time workers who complete between 500 and 1,000 hours of service for two straight years.

“This bipartisan legislation includes sweeping reforms to help Americans save more for retirement by allowing people who have saved too little to set more aside for their retirement, helping small businesses offer 401(k)s and other retirement plans, expanding access to retirement savings plans for low-income Americans without coverage, and providing more certainty and flexibility during Americans’ retirement years,”  Portman said in a statement.

The senators cited a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that said nearly half of all near retirees over the age of 55 have no retirement savings, and a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey that found only 49% of private-sector workers at the smallest businesses and 39% of part-time workers have access to an employer-sponsored plan. They also said only 22% of low-income workers currently participate in a retirement plan.

The bill is supported by the American Benefits Council, AARP, and the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI), among several other associations and institutional investors, including T. Rowe Price, Vanguard, and TIAA.

Other provisions in the bill include:

  • Allowing employers to make an additional contribution on behalf of employees in a small business SIMPLE [savings incentive match plan for employees] retirement plan;

  • Indexing to inflation the allowable catch-up contribution to individual retirement accounts (IRAs);

  • Increasing the current law tax credit for the smallest businesses starting a new retirement plan to a larger percentage of their costs;

  • Simplifying rules for small businesses to reduce the cost of enrolling new employees; and

  • Creating a national, online database of lost accounts.

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Climate Transition Risk to Have Greater Impact on Ratings

The quick changes needed to meet Paris Agreement goals could disrupt a variety of sectors, says S&P.


Transition risk will likely be an increasingly significant rating factor in the years ahead, according to S&P Global Ratings, which said the accelerated speed of transition needed to meet the targets of the Paris Agreement could create unseen disruptions in a variety of sectors.  

“Few sectors will be spared from the energy transition fallout, though each sector is likely to see both winners and losers,” S&P said in a recent comment.

The firm said transitioning to renewable energy could be undermined by political and social obstacles, as well as economic, land availability, or technological issues, which could slow down the current pace if they’re not addressed. It also said that while most industries will carry some responsibility for global decarbonization, the burden is heaviest with the industries that emit the most greenhouse gases.

And according to data from the World Resources Institute’s Climate Analysis Indicators Tool (CAIT), the most emissions as of 2018 came from electricity/heat (36%), transportation (30%), building (9%), manufacturing (8%), and agribusiness (7%).

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“The economy-wide decarbonization plan target areas include coal mining, emissions reduction from power plants, several measures relevant to the oil and gas sector, as well as earmarking emission reductions from forestry and agriculture,” according to S&P. “These sectors are likely to bear the most direct, measurable, and immediate impacts from energy transition as required by the new mandates.”

S&P Global Ratings also said President Joe Biden’s climate plan will catalyze several clean technologies that are related to transportation, building construction, water management, and renewables, among other industries. “They’re bound to be transformative to those traditional industries, but are also likely to indirectly affect other sectors that rely on these, such as consumer goods,” it said.

The goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius. And the implementation of the agreement relies on a five-year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate action carried out by countries worldwide. In 2020, countries submitted their plans for climate action known as “nationally determined contributions,” or NDCs.  

The S&P said that while the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (also known as COP 26) to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, in November “will undoubtedly be pivotal for addressing climate change,” it believes most of the work toward achieving NDCs will have to be done at the national or regional level. However, this will lead to uncertainty as it “remains to be seen what incremental mechanisms will be put in place to help achieve them.”

Although climate transition risk is increasing in importance, it hasn’t gotten any easier to measure that risk, according to S&P research, which indicates that markets continue to struggle to price in the risks of the physical impacts of climate change and energy transition. Nevertheless, the firm said it believes the global sustainable debt market will continue to grow, and will likely exceed $700 billion this year.

“And, importantly, it’s likely to diversify as well, broadening to capture new financing vehicles, such as sustainability-linked loans, and unconventional issuers,” it said.

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