Ed Royce: “I have been trying for some years now to push this concept, a bill that I introduced a number of years ago. With the…”

“I have been trying for some years now to push this concept, a bill that I introduced a number of years ago. With the knowledge that we have got, I do not know, maybe 37 million Americans who do have access to these flexible spending accounts, and I think many of us here probably know someone who does, maybe a spouse, if he or she is employed in the private sector, but the problem is that over half of these individuals do not utilize their access to FSAs because of this use-it-or-lose-it provision that we are trying to eliminate through this measure here today. And as we know, currently, the employer and the employee can set aside money before taxes into this flexible spending account and then that money can be used just like cash to pay for out-of-pocket medical expenses and insurance copayments and doctors' visits and even child care. The downside is that if they do not spend their money at the end of the year, they lose it, and it goes back to their employer. I originally introduced this bill as a consequence of a conversation I had 4 years ago with my wife, who came home with yet another pair of glasses, and Marie said she purchased them not because she needed them necessarily. She liked them, but she said she did not want to lose the money in her FSA and her employer said that if she does not spend it, this money will revert back to the company.”