SECURE Firearm Storage Act

Mr. President, as chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, ensuring that more Americans are secure financially in their retirement years is one of my highest priorities.

Later this week, our Aging Committee will hold a hearing on this very topic, following up on previous work we have done in the last Congress.

Today, I rise to introduce two bipartisan bills that would help to promote greater retirement security. Together, these bills would encourage more small employers to offer retirement plans, provide incentives for employees to save more for their retirement, and make it easier for low- and middle-income taxpayers to claim an existing tax break for their retirement savings.

According to the nonpartisan Center for Retirement Research, there is an estimated $7.7 trillion gap between the savings that American households need to maintain their standard of living in retirement and what they actually have saved. Think of that. We are not talking about billions here; we are talking about a $7.7 trillion gap.

A recent Gallup poll found that only 54 percent of working Americans believe they will have enough money to live comfortably in their retirement years. We must, therefore, continue to work to ensure that more Americans will have sufficient resources that they need to enjoy what are supposed to be their golden years.

There are many reasons why Americans have struggled to have sufficient funds for their retirement. One is the shift away from employer-based defined benefit plans, known as pensions, to defined contribution plans in which the risk is placed more on the employee. Another is the severity of the 2008 financial crisis. Yet another is rising healthcare costs, including the need for expensive long-term care. But the No. 1 factor is that Americans are living far longer than they did in the past. Many Americans are also reaching retirement age with more debt than retirees in past generations. Many Americans are worried that they will outlive their retirement savings.

There is another contributing factor, and that is that employees of small businesses, which are the majority of businesses in this country, are much less likely to participate or even have access to employer- based retirement plans. According to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts, more than 30 million U.S. workers lack access to a work-based plan to save for retirement, so making it easier for small businesses to offer retirement plans would make a significant difference in the financial security for many Americans. That is why the first of the two retirement security bills that I am introducing today--the Retirement Security Act--would focus on reducing the cost and complexity of retirement plans, especially for our small businesses, and on encouraging individual employees to save more for their retirement.

I am delighted that my friend and colleague from New Hampshire, Senator Hassan, has agreed to be the lead Democratic cosponsor on this bill. My colleague from New Hampshire has great compassion for those who are struggling to make ends meet. She and I both represent States with an aging population, and we know how difficult it is for many older Americans when they are struggling with high healthcare costs, heating their homes, affording their medications, and trying to get by in their retirement years.

Our bill would make it easier for businesses to enter into multiple employer plans, known as MEPs, in order to offer retirement programs to their employees.

MEPs permit small companies to share the administrative costs and burden of a retirement plan, and that helps to lower the costs overall. Current law discourages the use of MEPs, however, because it requires a connection, or a nexus, between unrelated businesses in order to join together as a MEP, such as membership in the same trade association. Our bill would waive that nexus requirement for businesses and would prevent employers from losing their tax benefits if one member of the MEP fails to meet the minimum requirements necessary to obtain these tax incentives.

In addition, the bill would reduce the cost of maintaining a plan by directing the Department of Treasury to consolidate notices and other required documentation--in other words, to reduce all of the onerous paperwork.

The Retirement Security Act would also modify the existing safe harbor for automatic enrollment plans to allow employees to receive an employer match of contributions of up to 10 percent of their pay. Employees would be able to contribute more than 10 percent of their wages or salary, albeit without an employer match for contributions above 10 percent. This is an example of a provision that would encourage employees to save more for their retirement by giving them this tax incentive.

I realize that businesses that choose to adopt this plan with the new optional safe harbor may face additional costs due to the increased employer match, and that is why our bill would also help the smallest businesses--those with fewer than 100 employees--to offset this cost by providing a new tax credit equal to the increased match.

What we want to do in our bill is to provide incentives for employees to establish these plans by waiving the requirement that they have to be in a related industry, and we would also encourage both employees and employers to increase, if they can, the amount of money they are donating to these retirement plans.

The new retirement plan options for businesses that are included in our bill are just that--they are options; they are opportunities. No business, large or small, would be required to offer its employees a retirement plan under our bill. This is an opportunity, not a mandate, but it is an opportunity that I would hope that more and more small businesses would consider because I know they share the concern about the financial security of their employees once they reach their retirement years.

I am very pleased to see my colleague from New Hampshire on the Senate floor. I hope the Senate will listen carefully to her words as well.

Mr. President, building on this comprehensive effort to strengthen retirement security, I am also introducing a second bill today with my friend and colleague from Virginia, Senator Mark Warner.

It would provide greater flexibility and access to both employees and their employers seeking to use the popular SIMPLE plans for saving for retirement.

Established in 1996, SIMPLE plans can help small businesses provide their employees with a retirement plan that is less costly and easier to navigate than the 401(k) plan, which many small employers simply cannot afford.

Our bill, the SIMPLE Plan Modernization Act, would help expand access to SIMPLE plans by increasing the contribution limit for most small companies. This would achieve two important goals. First, it would encourage more small employers to offer a retirement savings benefit to their employees. Second, it would allow employees of small businesses to save even more for retirement each year on a tax-deferred basis.

This legislation is also a win-win proposition for retirement security. It encourages small business employers and their employees to take additional steps to save for retirement. For many small employers, this legislation would provide enhanced saving opportunities. At the same time, it is carefully constructed to prevent employers that already have a 401(k) plan from dropping that plan to adopt a SIMPLE plan. In other words, we want to broaden the number of employers who are able to offer retirement plans to their employees. It also preserves strong incentives for small businesses that become more successful to move from a SIMPLE plan to a 401(k) plan as they become bigger, more profitable, and more secure.

In light of the positive effects these bills would have in strengthening retirement security for millions of Americans, I urge my colleagues to join in supporting the Retirement Security Act of 2019 and the SIMPLE Plan Modernization Act.

This is a crisis that is looming on the horizon. It used to be that we could count on the three pillars that made up the retirement system, Social Security, a pension from an employer, and also personal savings. All three of those pillars are shaky right now. The two bills I have introduced today attempt to strengthen two out of three of the legs of this three-legged stool. We need to do that to ensure that Americans can enjoy a financially secure retirement and not end up retiring in poverty.

Mr. President, I rise to reintroduce legislation to establish the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National Heritage Area, California's first National Heritage Area.

I am very pleased to work with Senator Harris, Congressman John Garamendi, and local stakeholders in California on this important legislation.

This legislation will establish California's first National Heritage Area in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to promote environmental stewardship, heritage conservation, and economic development in communities across five Delta-area counties.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the largest estuary in the western United States and one of the most productive and ecologically important watersheds in North America. This extensive inland delta is a national treasure that must be protected.

The Delta offers recreational opportunities enjoyed by millions of Californians and out-of-state visitors alike, who come each year for boating, fishing, hunting, and sightseeing.

It also provides critical habitat for more than 750 wildlife species, including Sandhill cranes and other migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway as well as iconic native fish like the Chinook salmon, some as large as 60 pounds, which return each year to travel through the Delta to spawn in tributaries upstream.

These same waterways also provide freshwater to millions of California households and irrigated farmland south of the Delta and elsewhere in the state.

Before being converted for farmland starting in the 19th century, the Delta flooded regularly following the springtime snowmelt and once supported the continent's largest Native Americans communities.

Later, the Delta served as the gateway for the California Gold Rush, after which Chinese immigrant workers built hundreds of miles of levees to make the Delta's rich peat soils available for farming and to control flooding.

Japanese, Chinese, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, South Asian, and other immigrants began the area's farming legacy and established proud communities that continue today.

Over the years, the vibrant ``river culture'' unique to Delta communities has attracted the attention of celebrated authors from Mark Twain and Jack London to Joan Didion.

A National Heritage Area designation would help to preserve this uniquely American story by providing the opportunity for modest federal funding to help local entities, principally the Delta Protection Commission, manage the Heritage Area in accordance with California law and in partnership with Delta communities.

The management planning process required by this legislation will be collaborative and open to the public. Federal, State, tribal, and local governments, private property owners, and all stakeholders will have a voice in the management planning for the Heritage Area.

I'd like to emphasize that this legislation does not affect water rights or water contracts, nor does it impose any additional responsibilities on local governments or private landowners.

Instead, this legislation authorizes Federal assistance to support local projects as part of an inclusive process required by State law.

Today, the Delta faces a crisis due to invasive species, urban and agricultural run-off, wastewater overloads, channelization, dredging, water exports, and other stressors.

Many Delta islands are now 10 to 20 feet below sea level due to subsidence, and the present levee system is inadequate for providing reliable flood protection for historic communities, agricultural enterprises, and infrastructure.

Alarmingly, many existing levees were simply not engineered to withstand earthquakes. Should levees fail, a rush of saltwater into the interior Delta would damage this already fragile ecosystem, disrupt drinking water supplies, flood agricultural land, inundate towns, and damage roads, powerlines, and water infrastructure.

Our legislation recognizes the Delta as a working landscape central to California life and seeks to further local projects already underway that promote environmental stewardship, heritage conservation, community revitalization, and economic development throughout the Delta.

This legislation also seeks to fulfill the broadly supported 2009 California state law that called for a Heritage Area designation for the Delta.

Our legislation is a small part of the commitment the Federal government must make to the California Delta.

I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues at every level of government to restore the Delta and its native species, upgrade California's water supply, safeguard against flood risk, improve water quality, and preserve Delta communities' rich heritage and continued vibrancy.

Thank you, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise to join my colleague from Maine in discussing the Retirement Security Act.

I first just want to start by thanking Senator Collins for her work on this bipartisan bill, the other bill she discussed, and for her leadership as chairman of the Aging Committee, to help ensure that older Americans can thrive. That includes, of course, making it easier to save for retirement.

By the time they reach retirement, every hard-working American should have the peace of mind of knowing they can live comfortably and without having to worry about how to make ends meet. While Social Security is a critical safety net--one we have to protect for all--it was only designed, as Senator Collins pointed out, as part of the retirement equation.

It is clear we are on the verge of a retirement crisis, as more and more Americans are retiring without the economic security they need. According to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, approximately 25 percent of working Americans have reported having no retirement savings or pension. AARP estimates that 55 million Americans--including roughly 230,000 Granite Staters--do not have access to a retirement plan at their workplace, and participation in retirement plans has dropped over the past several years.

We know there is a significant gap between what people need in order to maintain their standard of living after retirement and what they actually have. It is essential we do more to help workers close that gap. That is why I am pleased to join with Senator Collins today in introducing the bipartisan Retirement Security Act.

This commonsense legislation makes it easier for small businesses to provide retirement plans for their employees, something I hear from small business people all the time, something they want to do, but there are technical and financial challenges to doing it. This bill would encourage people in the workforce as well to save more for retirement, and it would help reduce the costs and complexities of maintaining a retirement plan.

We have more work to do to help people in New Hampshire, in Maine, and all across our country plan and save for retirement, and the Retirement Savings Act is a strong step forward. I again thank Senator Collins for her leadership on this issue, and I look forward to continuing to work with her to pass the bipartisan legislation, as well as other shared priorities for retirees, small businesses, and more.

Additionally, as a new member of the Finance Committee, I look forward to working with my colleagues to tackle this and other critical issues.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.