Legislative updates

Representative Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) has introduced the Enhancing Emergency and Retirement Savings Act of 2022 to provide flexibility and access for those who experience unexpected emergencies. The bill is the House companion to S. 1870, introduced by Senator James Lankford (R-OK) and Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) last year.

The legislation would provide a penalty-free “emergency personal expense distribution” option from employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs. The proposal would allow for one emergency distribution per calendar year of up to $1,000 from the individual’s total nonforfeitable accrued benefit under the plan. The bill requires that the withdrawn funds be paid back to the plan before an additional emergency distribution from that same plan is allowed. The amount can be recontributed within a three-year period to any eligible plan to which a rollover contribution can be made.

An emergency personal expense distribution is defined as a distribution for purposes of meeting unforeseeable or immediate financial need relating to necessary personal or family emergency expenses. The plan sponsor of an employer-sponsored retirement plan may rely on an employee’s certification that the conditions are satisfied in determining whether the distribution is an emergency distribution.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a substantial $1.5 Trillion omnibus spending package to fund the government. Included in the bill is a provision that would temporarily allow expenses for telehealth and other remote care services to continue be paid from a health savings account (HSA) without first meeting the deductible under the high deductible health plan (HDHP). The provision would allow the deductible to be disregarded for the period April 1, 2022, through December 31, 2022.

Previously, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act amended the same provision to temporarily cover telehealth and remote care services without meeting the deductible for the period after January 1, 2020, for plan years beginning on or before December 31, 2021.

While the provision, if enacted, would allow additional temporary flexibility for HSA owners to cover telehealth expenses from their accounts before meeting deductibles, it is important to note that due to the timing of the expiration of the CARES relief and the extension proposed in the legislation, telehealth services for the period January 1, 2022, through March 31, 2022, would be subject to the HDHP deductible requirements before they would be considered a qualified medical expense for HSA purposes.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where a vote is expected by a Friday funding deadline. However, House lawmakers also passed a stopgap measure by voice vote that lasts until Tuesday to ensure that the Senate has enough time to clear the omnibus package without risking a government shutdown.

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) has introduced the Diaper Inclusion in Accounts for Parental Expense Reduction (DIAPER) Act. The bipartisan bill would allow the use of flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health savings accounts (HSAs) to be used to purchase disposable infant diapers as qualified medical expenses. Any progress of the bill through Congress will be monitored, and details provided as they become available.

Legislation to promote retirement plan lifetime income options has been reintroduced by Representatives Donald Norcross (D-NJ) and Tim Walberg (R-MI). The Lifetime Income For Employees (LIFE) Act of 2022 would modify the qualified default investment arrangement rules under ERISA to allow annuity investments as part of a default in employer-provided 401(k) plans. The proposal is intended to provide employees with a steady guaranteed income during retirement and allow greater peace of mind that their income will last throughout retirement.

The Child Health Savings Account Act of 2022 (H.R. 6507), introduced by Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) in the House of Representatives, would expand HSA contribution eligibility requirements by allowing parents to contribute and deduct up to $3,000 each year to their childrens’ HSAs.

The HSA will be treated as the parent’s HSA until the child reaches age 18. At that time, it would become the child’s HSA. As the bill is currently drafted, any distributions taken out of the HSA before the child’s 18^th birthday would be included in the parent’s taxable income. Nonqualified distributions would also be subject to an additional 20 percent penalty tax. Once the child turns 18, distributions would be considered qualified only if they were taken while the child was not a dependent on the parent’s insurance (the child could be treated as the parent’s dependent for certain permitted insurance, but not for the parent’s health plan).

If the child were to become disabled or die, the parent would no longer be able to make contributions, but could roll over any HSA assets to their own IRA or HSA, or to another child’s HSA.

If enacted, this legislation would become effective for tax years beginning after the date of enactment. Any progress of the bill through Congress will be monitored, and details provided as they become available.

The Family Plus Health Care Act of 2022 (H.R. 6508), introduced by Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) in the House of Representatives, aims to expand group health plan coverage by requiring plans to offer participants the option of enrolling their parents in the plan, as long as the parents are not eligible to enroll in either Medicare or Medicaid.

The cost of the parents’ group health plan coverage would be excluded from the gross income of the employee participating in the plan. Self-employed individuals would be allowed to claim a deduction for the amount that they paid to insure their parents.

The term ‘parent’ includes an individual’s biological parent, a stepparent, and a parent by adoption, but does not include a spouse’s parent. If enacted, this legislation would apply to any amounts paid or incurred after the bill’s date of enactment.

On November 19, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act ("BBB Act" or "the Act"). Following quickly on the heels of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the BBB Act contains several retirement and benefits provisions that may affect financial organizations, service providers, and consumers. This bill has gone through numerous revisions as it made its journey to the House floor for a vote. It will now go to the Senate, which will likely make further revisions. So the Act’s final version—if passed by both the House and Senate—may be different from the current version.

The House of Representatives passed the $1.9 trillion Build Back Better bill in a 220-213 near party line vote. The House-passed version of the bill contains several IRA provisions, including

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (the Act), signed by President Biden on November 15, 2021, includes extensions to the single employer pension funding relief originally provided in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). Other provisions include modifications to the mandatory 60-day postponement period, which grants relief to taxpayers for certain tax-related acts due to federally declared disasters and new reporting requirements for transactions involving digital assets. The effective dates vary—pension funding relief provisions apply to plan years beginning after December 31, 2021; the disaster relief changes are effective for federally declared disasters that occur after November 15, 2021; and the new reporting requirements for digital assets apply to information reports required to be filed after December 31, 2023.

Leadership from the House Committee on Education and Labor and its Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions have introduced the Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement (RISE) Act to expand worker access to a secure retirement.