Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2016
Latest action. Placed on Senate legislative calendarThe list of measures reported out of committee and eligible for floor action. Being on the calendar is not a promise of a vote.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) under General Orders. Calendar No. 670.
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary of that version is repeated here.)
Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act of 2016
This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to modify requirements for tax-favored retirement savings accounts, employer-provided retirement plans, and retirement benefits for federal judges.
With respect to employer-provided plans, the bill modifies requirements regarding:
multiple employer plans,
automatic enrollment and nonelective contributions,
hardship withdrawals,
loans,
rollovers,
terminating or transferring plans,
reporting and disclosure rules,
nondiscrimination rules,
selecting lifetime income providers, and
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation premiums.
The bill also increases the tax credit for small employer pension plan startup costs and allows a tax credit for small employers that establish retirement plans that include automatic enrollment.
With respect to Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), the bill:
treats taxable non-tuition fellowship and stipend payments as compensation for the purpose of an IRA,
repeals the maximum age for traditional IRA contributions, and
permits any IRA to be a shareholder of any S corporation that is a bank.
The bill makes several modifications to retirement benefits for magistrate judges of the U.S. Tax Court and other federal judges.
The bill also modifies various tax provisions to:
reinstate and increase the tax exclusion for benefits provided to volunteer firefighters and emergency medical responders;
allow an employee to elect to defer, for income tax purposes, the inclusion in income of the amount of income attributable to certain stock transferred to the employee by the employer;
revise the required distribution rules for pension plans;
increase penalties for failing to file tax returns or retirement plan returns;
prohibit increases in the user fees for installment agreements and waive the fees for certain low-income taxpayers;
require the Internal Revenue Service to share certain return and return information with U.S. Customs Border Protection; and
repeal a provision that provides for the technical termination of partnerships.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to Senate without amendment" stage on November 16, 2016. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on November 16, 2016: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 670.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 114th Congress (2015-16), 329 of the 10,233 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.2 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
ORRIN HATCH (R-UT) introduced it on November 16, 2016. No cosponsors are recorded.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on November 16, 2016, 3585 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3585 days ago, on November 16, 2016.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 114th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2017 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers