Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Madam Speaker, to the committee chairman and, in my world, the chairman for life, you have done great.

It has been an interesting experience being in the minority, but we are blessed. We have freaky-smart people on the committee. It works. Even when we disagree, at least the debate and the discussion is fairly highbrow.

I, too, am concerned on the 529, more so because of the flexibility and, being the daddy of a 3\1/2\-year-old, not completely knowing if there are going to be any special needs coming, that choice. We should love and embrace the concept of that flexibility to take care of our little people.

I am very encouraged that there is movement towards incentivizing it and making it easier, particularly for smaller businesses, to offer access into retirement accounts.

We need to have the conversation--and it is uncomfortable for all of us--go a bit further.

The amount of our society that is now in independent-contractor relationships, should we be allowed to use technology so that population also starts to have more and more savings for the future? We just need to deal with it. That is where much of the economy, in a demand economy, is going.

My last caveat--and I am voting for the bill. We have come a long ways. I do worry a little bit about the special agreement on newspapers, only because if we are truly worried about protecting workers into their retirement years, do we want to create more even special, special, special small cutouts where we are allowing the underfunding of a pension system?

We just need to think that through a little more from an ethical standpoint. Do we keep creating carve-out after carve-out after carve- out that creates a fragility for that retired population?

Even though we think we are helping the businesses survive, we actually hurt the future chances of those retirees getting their checks. We need to be careful on that.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source