华盛顿-周五通过的1.7万亿美元支出法案的一部分被称为是向支撑数百万美国工人退休账户迈出的戏剧性一步。但真正的意外之财可能会流向一个安全得多的群体:金融服务业。
被称为安全2.0的退休储蓄措施将重新设定人们加入退休计划的方式——从要求他们选择加入计划到要求他们选择退出。这项规定旨在确保更多的参与。
它还允许工人使用他们的学生贷款支付作为他们对退休计划的贡献的替代——这意味着他们可以通过偿还债务从雇主那里获得匹配的退休贡献——提高了计划所需分配的年龄，并扩大了减税储蓄信贷。
但正如许多影响深远的支出法案很少得到公众考虑一样，该法案的条款也有利于企业利益，因为它们在结果中有着强烈的财务利益。
华盛顿自由经济政策研究所(liberal Economic Policy Institute)的经济学家莫尼克·莫里西(Monique Strauss)表示:“其中一些条款是好的，我们希望帮助那些想储蓄的人——但这对金融服务业来说是一个巨大的福音。”。她说，该法案的某些部分“伪装成储蓄激励”
专门研究税收政策和退休储蓄的哈佛大学法学教授丹尼尔·哈尔珀林(Daniel Halperin)表示，对行业来说，最明显的好处之一是将强制分配的年龄从72岁逐渐提高到75岁。他说，“我们的目标是把钱留在那里越久越好”，以便收取管理费。“对于那些拥有500万到700万到1000万美元存款的人，公司会继续收取费用。允许他们把它留在那里是疯狂的。”
参议院游说披露显示，贝莱德基金服务集团(BlackRock Funds Services Group)、保诚金融(Prudential Financial)、太平洋人寿保险(Pacific Life Insurance)等公司，以及商业圆桌会议(Business Roundtable)和美国人寿保险公司理事会(American Council of Life Insurers)等商业游说团体，只是就Secure 2.0游说立法者的一些实体。
保诚的代表Katherine DeBerry表示，该公司欢迎Secure 2.0的通过，称其“将有助于确保员工的退休储蓄持续一生。"
贝莱德的一名代表拒绝置评，太平洋人寿、商业圆桌会议和美国人寿保险协会也没有回应美联社的置评请求。披露表格只需要关于游说者寻求的结果的最少信息。
即将退休的参议员罗布·波特曼(俄亥俄州共和党人)和参议员本·卡丁(马里兰州民主党人)已经通过被称为“综合预算”的大规模支出法案迎来了安全2.0。Secure 2.0中的92项条款中有近一半全部或部分来自Cardin-Portman法案，该法案在今年夏天获得了参议院财政委员会的一致通过。
“参议员卡丁很自豪他的作用产生了一个平衡的一揽子计划，得到了商业，劳工和消费者团体的支持，”卡丁发言人苏瓦利茨基在一份声明中说。“它保护并鼓励最脆弱人群的退休储蓄，尤其是低收入人群。”
波特曼的发言人莫莉·蒂蒙斯(Mollie Timmons)表示，Secure 2.0的条款将“帮助兼职工人，并帮助更多的小企业为他们的工人提供退休计划，这是大多数低收入工人就业的地方。”
根据OpenSecrets的数据，两位议员的竞选活动都从与退休行业相关的公司获得了大量捐款——卡丁从2017年到2022年从证券和投资行业获得了329，271美元，波特曼同期从相同行业获得了515，996美元。
专家说，立法中对普通美国人有很好的规定，比如在退休账户的同时建立雇主紧急储蓄账户。新账户允许员工创建税收保护的应急基金。该立法还扩大了储蓄信贷，对最高2000美元的储蓄提供50%的税收抵免，这些储蓄将直接存入纳税人的个人退休帐户或退休计划。
莫里西和其他退休专家还表示，这些条款提醒人们有必要加强社会保障，这项社会计划惠及7000多万受益人，包括退休人员、残疾人和儿童。6月份发布的年度社会保障和医疗保险受托人报告称，从2035年开始，该计划的信托基金将无法支付全部福利。
对许多美国人来说，社会保障——由从工人及其雇主那里征收的工资税资助——是他们唯一的退休储蓄手段。
在周五通过的大规模支出计划中，国会议员批准了拜登政府提出的14亿美元社会保障支出增加额的大约一半。
美国退休人员协会执行副主席南希·里蒙德说:“在过去的十年里，社会保障管理局的资金不断减少，而它服务的人数却在增加。”。“这导致了更长的等待时间、不堪重负的现场办公室和残疾处理时间飙升至历史最高水平。
“必须做更多的事情，”她说。
在皮尤研究中心1月份的一项民意调查中，57%的美国成年人表示，“采取措施使社会保障体系在财务上健康”应该是总统和国会的首要任务。保障社会保障得到了两党的支持，56%的民主党人和58%的共和党人认为这是重中之重。
倡导团体社会保障工程(Social Security Works)的联合主任南希·奥尔特曼(Nancy Altman)表示，如果“目标是真正帮助中等收入家庭”，国会应该为社会保障提供充足的资金
尽管如此，最新的立法是一小步，旨在帮助数百万没有为退休储蓄的美国人。
美国人口普查数据显示，大约一半的美国人正在为退休储蓄。2020年，58%的工作年龄婴儿潮一代拥有至少一种类型的退休账户，其次是56%的X一代，49%的千禧一代和7.7%的Z一代。
沃顿商学院专门研究退休储蓄的经济学家奥利维亚·米切尔(Olivia Mitchell)表示，与员工贡献相当的公司的员工可能对Secure 2.0的通过感受最深。
她说，研究表明，自动登记最初可以增加退休计划的覆盖面，但随着时间的推移，参与率可能会下降。
米切尔研究了第一个基于州的此类计划——Oregon saves，该计划自动招募公司没有退休储蓄计划的员工。她发现只有36%的员工在一年后有正结余。该计划中不到一半的人在一年后仍在缴费。
尽管如此，她说，“事实仍然是，通过退休储蓄计划，经常换工作的低收入工人是一个很难达到的目标。”
Spending bill aids retirees, and boosts financial industry
WASHINGTON -- A section of the $1.7 trillion spending bill passed Friday has been billed as a dramatic step toward shoring up retirement accounts of millions of U.S. workers. But the real windfall may go to a far more secure group: the financial services industry.
The retirement savings measure labeled Secure 2.0 would reset how people enroll in retirement plans — from requiring them to opt into plans, to requiring them to opt out. The provision is designed to ensure greater participation.
It also allows workers to use their student loan payments as a substitute for their contributions to their retirement plans — meaning they can get matching retirement contributions from their employers by paying off that debt — increases the age for required distributions from plans, and expands a tax-deductible saver's credit.
But as with so many far-reaching spending bills that get little public consideration, provisions of the legislation also benefit corporate interests with a strong financial interest in the outcome.
“Some of these provisions are good and we want to help people who want to save — but this is a huge boon to the financial services industry," says Monique Morrissey an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington. Some parts of the bill, she says, are “disguised as savings incentives.”
Daniel Halperin, a Harvard law professor who specializes in tax policy and retirement savings, said one of the most clear benefits to industry is the provision that gradually increases the age for mandatory distributions from 72 to 75. “The goal is to leave that money there for as long as possible,” in order to collect administrative fees, he said. “For people who have $5 to $7 to $10 million saved, firms keep collecting fees. It's crazy to allow them to leave it there.”
Companies like BlackRock Funds Services Group, Prudential Financial, Pacific Life Insurance and business lobbying groups such as the Business Roundtable and American Council of Life Insurers are only some of the entities that lobbied lawmakers on Secure 2.0, Senate lobbying disclosures show.
Katherine DeBerry, a representative from Prudential, said the firm applauds the passage of Secure 2.0, stating that it "will help ensure employees’ retirement savings last a lifetime.”
A representative from Blackrock declined to comment and Pacific Life, the Business Roundtable and American Council of Life Insurers did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment. The disclosure forms require only minimal information about the outcome the lobbyists sought.
Retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) had been ushering Secure 2.0 through the massive spending bill known as an omnibus. Nearly half of the 92 provisions in Secure 2.0 come, in full or part, from Cardin-Portman legislation that was approved unanimously by the Senate Finance Committee in the summer.
“Senator Cardin is proud of his role producing a balanced package that is supported by business, labor and consumer groups," Cardin spokesperson Sue Walitsky said in a statement. “It protects and encourages retirement savings among the most vulnerable, particularly lower-income individuals.”
Mollie Timmons, a spokeswoman for Portman said the provisions of Secure 2.0 will “help part-time workers and help more small businesses offer retirement plans to their workers, which is where most lower-income workers are employed.”
Both lawmakers' campaigns have received large contributions from firms tied to the retirement industry, according to OpenSecrets — with Cardin receiving $329,271 from the securities and investment industry from 2017 to 2022 and Portman receiving $515,996 from the same industries in the same period.
There are good provisions in the legislation for average Americans, experts say, like the creation of employer emergency savings accounts alongside retirement accounts. The new accounts let workers create tax-protected rainy day funds. The legislation also expands the saver’s credit, which provides a 50 percent tax credit on savings up to $2,000, that will be deposited directly into a taxpayer’s IRA or retirement plan.
Morrissey and other retirement experts also say the provisions are a reminder of the need to shore up Social Security — the social program that benefits more than 70 million recipients — retirees, disabled people and children. The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released in June says the program’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035.
For many Americans, Social Security — financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers — is their only means of retirement savings.
In the sweeping spending package passed Friday, lawmakers authorized roughly half of the $1.4 billion spending increase proposed by the Biden administration for Social Security.
“Funding for the Social Security Administration has steadily eroded over the past decade, while the number of people it serves has grown,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president. "This has resulted in longer wait times, overwhelmed field offices and disability processing times that have skyrocketed to an all-time high.
“More must be done," she said.
In a Pew Research Center poll in January, 57 percent of U.S. adults said that “taking steps to make the Social Security system financially sound” should be a top priority for the president and Congress. Securing Social Security got bipartisan support, with 56% of Democrats and 58% of Republicans calling it a top priority.
Nancy Altman, co-director of Social Security Works, an advocacy group, said Congress should be adequately funding Social Security if “the goal was to really help middle income families.”
Still, the latest legislation is a small step meant to assist the millions of Americans who haven’t saved for retirement.
U.S. Census data show that roughly half of Americans are saving for their retirement. In 2020, 58% of working-age baby boomers owned at least one type of retirement account, followed by 56% of Gen X-ers, 49% of millennials and 7.7% of Gen Z-ers.
Olivia Mitchell, a Wharton economist who specializes in retirement savings, says the results of Secure 2.0's passage may be felt most with workers at companies that match their employees' contributions.
She said research suggests that auto-enrollment can boost retirement plan coverage initially but participation may fall over time.
Mitchell studied the first state-based plan of its kind, OregonSaves, which auto-enrolled workers whose firms did not have retirement savings plans. She found that only 36% of workers had a positive balance after one year. Less than half of those in the plan were still contributing after a year.
Nonetheless, she said, “the fact remains that low-paid workers who change jobs often are a difficult target to reach via retirement saving plans.”
