This Congress’s familiar difficulty in reaching consensus on key issues means most important issue resolutions will be deferred to the 119^th Congress’s five-to-six-week lame duck session that will be convened after the November elections. Among the issues that NAIFA supports and has proactively asked Congress to enact but are unlikely to be addressed prior to the late September/early October pre-election recess are:

• Clarity for Compensation Act (H.R. 7187) would codify a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) no action position resulting in advisors being permitted to receive compensation from their own business entities, thus eliminating red tape and providing more flexibility in their business practices. The bill was approved by the House Committee on Financial Services on September 1 but has not yet been scheduled for a full House vote.
• Retirement Simplification and Clarity Act (H.R. 6324), This bill introduced by Reps. Darrin LaHood (R-IL) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA),.requires clear, understandable 402(f) notices about individuals' options for what to do with their retirement savings when leaving (terminating or retiring) the employer that sponsors the plan. The information provided includes distribution and rollover rules and tax implications. The bill also allows those age 50+ to roll some or all of their 401(k) funds into an annuity while still contributing to the plan. The bill is pending before the House Ways & Means Committee, but action on it has not yet been scheduled.
• The PLAN Act—Long-term care planning/education (H.R.8867): Congress is unlikely to act this month on the bill introduced by Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and cosponsored by Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL) that would create a long-term care planning initiative within the National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care. The bill is pending before the House Education & the Workforce Committee, but action on it has not yet been scheduled.
• Congressional Budget Resolution (CBR): The CBR would unlock the third all-GOP spending bill of this Congress. But the Senate has not yet passed a CBR (the House did, but the Senate is certain to change the House CBR, if it acts at all on a CBR). And there cannot be the resulting reconciliation bill without a CBR agreed to by both the House and Senate.
  
  Currently, the House-passed CBR and discussions about a Senate version are narrowly focused. They would authorize a reconciliation bill (that would require only a simple majority in the Senate to pass) with about $67 billion in new spending, largely on Defense, Agriculture, and money for States to tighten voter registration rules.
  
  However, there is talk about doing a fourth all-GOP spending bill that would open up such issues as tackling waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare/Medicaid. There is considerable resistance to expanding this effort to include tax issues this close to the mid-term elections, but there is also a lot of interest in acting on at least some tax proposals. So, it remains possible that after the elections, in a lame duck session, there will be an all-Republican budget bill that might include tax issues. This is something NAIFA is watching closely.
• Debt limit: The U.S. government is projected to hit the statutory cap on the extent to which it can borrow by mid-year next year. There has been substantial discussion, including from the White House, about addressing the debt limit issue now so as to avoid having to deal with it when Congress may not be controlled by Republicans. Currently, this effort appears to have stalled and most insiders think it will not come up, if at all, until the lame duck session in November.

Prospects: Whether there will be an opportunity to deal with any of these issues before the 120^th Congress is sworn in next January is an open question. A lot depends on what the politics of the Congress look like once the November election results are in. Most Washington insiders expect (although they cannot and do not guarantee) Democrats to take control of the House, and say there is a chance that the Senate will also flip to Democratic control.

If there is going to be a change in partisan power in 2027, Republicans may want to move heaven and earth to codify their priorities before they lose their majorities at the end of 2026. Democrats may want to wait on addressing many of these issues until they take control in January. And the makeup of the majority—whether it is Republican or Democrat—will matter a lot. The more (or fewer) members who are on the far edges of their Conference/Caucus (the far-right and far-left flanks), the trickier it gets to move a legislative agenda. We are in “wait and see” mode right now.

NAIFA Staff Contacts: Diane Boyle – Senior Vice President – Government Relations, at dboyle@naifa.org; Mike Hedge – Senior Director – Government Relations, at mhedge@naifa.org; or Jayne Fitzgerald – Director – Government Relations, at jfitzgerald@naifa.org