On May 13, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which has jurisdiction over ERISA issues, introduced legislation, S.1727, that would allow ESOPs to contribute company shares to plan participants without having to include the value of the shares in the ESOP’s or the employee’s contribution limits.

On May 15, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved President Trump’s nominee, Janet Dhillon, to head the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) by a 12-11 vote. The Senate Finance Committee must also approve her nomination before it can go to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. The Finance Committee held a hearing on her nomination on June 3.

On June 12, the Senate approved President Trump’s nominee, former Missouri Congressman Billy Long, for Internal Revenue Service Commissioner on a partisan vote of 53-46. The Finance Committee on June 5 approved Long on a partisan 14-13 vote. The Committee held a hearing on his nomination on May 20. The nomination is for a 5-year term.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on June 11 in a highly partisan hearing focusing on OBBB tax cut distribution, IRS capabilities in light of Trump staff and budget cuts, budget deficits and trade policy. The hearing was called to discuss the Department’s “priorities”. Secretary Bessent testified that the IRS collected higher than expected receipts in April’s tax filings.

During the week of April 29, House committees of jurisdiction began crafting their pieces of the $6 trillion+ reconciliation budget bill that Congress wants to enact by the end of this summer. The process is and will continue to be fraught as lawmakers make tough decisions, on which there is and will be much opposition, on how to cut spending and taxes for the upcoming 10 years.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved its reconciliation title on May 14 on a party line vote after a 17-hour mark-up. The tax title of the reconciliation bill contains provisions that would permanently extend (i.e., eliminate an expiration date) a raft of tax rules that are set to expire at the end of this year. A few of these extension provisions also modify the expiring rules, including the Section 199A deduction. In addition, the title includes new tax cuts first proposed by President Trump as well as other tax cuts. Offsets are included to ensure that the cost of the title complies with the Committee’s reconciliation instructions. Significantly and in a major victory for NAIFA, the Committee did not attempt to raise revenue from the products and services NAIFA provides to assist American families in achieving financial security.

The emerging reconciliation bill includes a provision to raise the statutory debt limit—the amount beyond which Treasury may not borrow--to $4 trillion. The Senate version of the budget calls for a $5 trillion increase to the $37.2 trillion federal debt limit. The House budget authorizes a $4 trillion debt limit increase.

On April 30, the House Education and the Workforce’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) held a hearing on the impact of ESG rules on retirement plans. The hearing also focused on other security issues, like tariffs, Social Security, and the national debt.

Legislation to create a federal retirement plan for workers whose employers do not offer a retirement plan was introduced last month in both the House and Senate. S.1526 was introduced by Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and Thom Tillis (R-SC). Reps. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) and Terri Sewell (D-AL) introduced the companion bill, H.R.2696, in the House.

Legislation to create a new, tax-favored flexible savings account was introduced in both the House and Senate. The “Universal Savings Account (USA) Act” would qualify USA accounts for Roth treatment (after-tax contributions, tax-free earnings and withdrawals).

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) has introduced two worker classification bills. One would clarify what constitutes an independent contractor as compared to an employee. The other would create a safe harbor that would allow an employer to provide benefits to independent contractors without risking a worker’s classification as an employee.

On April 30, a bipartisan bill to establish a federal paid family leave program was introduced by Reps. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA). The bill creates a three-year pilot grant program within the Department of Labor (DOL) aimed at encouraging states to create paid family leave programs using public-private partnerships.

Genworth Financial hosted a long-term care (LTC) symposium in Washington, DC on May 7. The symposium focused specifically on the issues surrounding financing long-term care. Also discussed were education, access, caregiver support and other issues.

The symposium on May 7 followed an April 7 conference, also in Washington, hosted by Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY). Rep. Suozzi is the principal author of a bipartisan long-term care bill, the WISH Act, H.R.2082, a bill that would create a public-private partnership to make long-term care more accessible and affordable. Rep. Suozzi spoke at the Genworth symposium, emphasizing the need to address the growing problem of affordable long-term care for what is projected to be some 70 million aging baby boomers.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted the Trump Administration’s request for a 60-day delay in considering the fiduciary rule cases that are currently on appeal before that court. That puts the court’s consideration of the case on track to be considered in mid-June at the soonest.

The request for delay impacts the ACLI/NAIFA case challenging the Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary rule. This is the second request for a 60-day delay that the court has granted.

On May 1, the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued a field assistance bulletin (FAB No. 2025-1) directing its agency investigators to not use the 2024 worker classification rule when determining whether workers are employees or independent contractors. Instead, agency investigators must rely on “longstanding principles outlined in Fact Sheet #13 and by the reinstated Opinion Letter FLSA2019-6.”

Key Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced legislation to phase in a federal minimum wage increase to $17/hour. The five-year phase-in would hike the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25/hour, to $17/hour by 2030. The bill would also index the minimum wage for inflation, and would phase out the subminimum wage for youth, tipped, and disabled workers. It would be the first federal minimum wage increase since 2009.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced the inflation-adjusted limits for high deductible health plans (HDHPs), Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), and Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) for 2026. Also announced were 2026 limits for excepted benefits HSAs.

On April 29, on a party-line vote, the Senate Finance Committee approved the nomination of Ken Kies to be Treasury Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy. Kies will play a key role in the development of all tax legislation, but especially now in the crafting of the tax portion of the massive reconciliation bill.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced it will hold a hearing on the confirmation of Janet Dhillon to serve as Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Director. The hearing is set for May 15.

Last month, NAIFA attended the National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) Spring Meeting and received updates on issues impacting the industry.