The House Education & the Workforce’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing last month on how to allow states and companies to provide independent contractors with employer-provided benefits without causing them to be classified as employees. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) said at the hearing that he is working on legislation to achieve this result.

The long-awaited final rule on the white-collar exception from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) overtime rules was released last month. The new rule significantly increases the salary threshold below which the white-collar exception does not apply and provides for automatic adjustments to the salary threshold every three years.

On April 23, by a 3 to 2 partisan vote, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned virtually all noncompete agreements. There are some limited exceptions involving key executives, but in general, the new rule would not only ban future noncompete agreements, but also require notice to workers who are party to existing noncompete agreements that those agreements will not be enforceable.

On May 9, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Revenue Procedure 2024-25, listing the 2025 inflation-adjusted amounts applicable to health savings accounts (HSAs), high deductible health plans (HDHPs), and excepted benefit health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). The inflation adjustments take effect, generally, in 2025 or for plan years beginning in 2025.

On May 6, the Social Security and Medicare trust fund trustees issued their annual report. The report predicts a financial crisis for the funds within 10 years, unless Congress intervenes before then.

In the wee morning hours of March 23—just two hours after the midnight March 22 deadline—Congress completed the fraught process of funding the federal government’s discretionary spending for fiscal year (FY) 2024—six months after FY 2024 began this past October 1. President Biden signed the measure into law the same day. Despite hard lobbying, the final funding package excluded a rider that would have stopped the Department of Labor’s (DOL) work on its fiduciary rule.

On April 10, NAIFA met with the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to express the association’s concerns about the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) proposed fiduciary rule. NAIFA reiterated its long-standing opposition to the rule, citing its probable impact on the accessibility and affordability of professional investment advice for middle-American retirement savers. Late that afternoon, OIRA sent the proposed rule back to DOL for finalization, canceling at least two subsequent previously scheduled stakeholder meetings.

On March 28, the Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and Treasury released a final short-term limited-duration (STLD) health insurance rule. It retains the proposed rule’s new limits of three months duration, with a four-month renewal option for this kind of insurance.

The tax-writing House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing on April 11 on the TCJA and its expiring individual and estate tax provisions. Predictably, the hearing showcased GOP support for extending the TCJA’s individual and estate tax rules that expire at the end of 2025. Democrats, on the other hand, called for more taxes to be paid by corporations and “the rich.”

Republican Senators are growing increasingly reluctant to vote any time soon on the House-passed bill that would, among other things, allow for more generous business equipment depreciation and business loan interest deductibility. The bill would need 60 votes, and therefore at least ten Republicans, to pass the Senate. However, some key GOP Senators are demanding changes, while others urge waiting until next year when they think they will be in a stronger position.

A bicameral GOP resolution to block the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) now-final worker classification rule has been introduced. On March 21, the House Education and the Workforce Committee approved a Congressional Review Act (CRA) motion to block the rule.

On April 2, the Centers for Medicare, and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rules for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces for 2025. The rules include the requirements applicable to advisors who work with participants in ACA marketplace insurance.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Brendan Boyle (D-PA) have reintroduced their wealth tax legislation that would impose increased tax liability on the ultra-wealthy. The bill would impact taxpayers with household income in excess of $50 million.

On April 7, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released a proposed national privacy standard. Sen. Cantwell and Rep. McMorris Rodgers chair the committees with jurisdiction over the proposal and so, although its enactment is a long shot this year, it is a proposal that privacy rights interests are taking very seriously.

Democrats have offered one bill to create a federal paid leave program and another to shorten the standard workweek to 32 hours.

On March 19, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed a new rule governing charitable remainder annuity trusts (CRATs). The new rule, if finalized, would curtail the use of CRATs as a tax avoidance mechanism.

On April 2, the Department of Labor (DOL) finalized its qualified plan asset manager (QPAM) rule. The rule is an amendment to prohibited transaction exemption (PTE) 84-14. The rule, which imposes broad disqualifying provisions on retirement plan asset managers who have been convicted of financial crime, takes effect June 17, 2024.

The Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) and the Treasury Department have announced an extension, from April 22 to May 22, 2024, of the deadline for responses to its request for information (RFI) on the effectiveness of SECURE 2.0’s notice and disclosure requirements.

NAIFA’s Policy Director Roger Moore attended NAIC’s Spring National Meeting on March 15-18, where he had the opportunity to strengthen NAIFA’s relationships with state regulators and industry trade partners, as well as advocate for key priorities affecting NAIFA’s members.

On March 8, the Department of Labor (DOL) sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review its proposed new fiduciary rule. This is the last step in the regulatory process prior to finalization of a rule. OIRA is an agency within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a White House agency.