On the recordMay 23, 2019
There is a retirement crisis in America today. Working men and women simply just don't have enough money in retirement savings. I rise today to advocate for the bipartisan SECURE Act, which will: one, help small businesses provide retirement plans that include automatic enrollment by giving those businesses an opportunity to pool together and by offering them a tax credit to help pay for startup costs; and, two, provide 401(k)s for the rising number of part-time workers and independent contractors in the new tech economy that can be portable from their current jobs to the next ones. Since the 1980s, the American economy has grown dramatically. Since 1983, the Dow Jones has gone up 1,200 percent and the GDP has gone up 600 percent, yet the wages of the American people have gone up less than 20 percent. No longer is hard work a guarantee of achieving the American Dream. Every American, whether liberal or conservative, believes that if you are willing to work 40 or 50 hours a week and 50 weeks a year that you should be able to have a decent place to live, to educate your children, to have health insurance, and to retire one day without being scared. That is simply not happening. The SECURE Act will help make retirement security a reality for millions of Americans.
