House to vote on retirement bill next week

The House is expected to vote next week on a bill aimed at encouraging retirement savings, a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday.

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet on Monday on the bill, known as the SECURE Act.

The bill contains a host of provisions aimed at making it easier for businesses to offer retirement plans and make it easier for taxpayers to save for retirement. Two provisions relating to 529 education savings plans will be removed from the package, the spokeswoman said.

The legislation passed the House Ways and Means Committee last month by voice vote, and Hoyer said several weeks ago that he expected to bring the measure to the House floor in May.{mosads}

But there had been some doubts about the timing of a vote, because teachers unions raised concerns about certain provisions relating to 529 plans. Those provisions were Republicans’ priorities in the bipartisan package.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) has filed a manager’s amendment to the bill that would remove provisions in the bill that would have allowed people to use money in 529 plans for homeschooling expenses and certain private-school ancillary expenses.

The top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) told reporters Wednesday that he hadn’t made a determination about how he would vote on the bill if the 529 plan provisions were removed from the package. He expressed concerns that removing the provisions will “lower bipartisan support for the package we reached in good faith.”

Neal’s manager’s amendment also would add to the bill a provision that would fix an issue with Republicans’ 2017 tax-cut law, where taxes were raised on military survivor benefits given to children. Republicans said the tax increase was an unintended consequence of their measure, and they are supportive of fixing it.

Boosting retirement savings is a bipartisan priority among lawmakers in both chambers of Congress. Hearings were held in both the House and Senate on the issue this week, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have introduced a bill that is similar to the SECURE Act. Their bill does not include the provisions relating to 529 plans.