[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 3, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S2688]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW ACT RESOLUTION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Now on to the legislation we will turn to today.
  In recent months, the Republican Congress has voted to provide much 
needed relief to the American people from Obama administration 
regulations pushed out the door at the eleventh hour. We have voted to 
eliminate 13 harmful regulations already, using the tools contained in 
the Congressional Review Act, and we will vote to eliminate another 
later today.
  Too often, the Obama administration pursued regulations that grew 
government at the expense of jobs, wages, and economic growth. Too 
often, under the guise of helping ordinary Americans, the 
administration was really just helping to expand the reach of 
government.
  That is certainly the case with the regulation we are considering 
today. President Obama's Department of Labor issued regulations that 
would impose new burdens on employers and employees when it comes to 
saving for their retirement. These regulations would give State 
officials the power to force employers to enroll their employees into 
government-run savings plans.
  Though the State-run plans might not seem too bad on the surface, 
what they really add up to is more government at the expense of the 
private sector and American workers.
  They would provide government-run retirement plans with a competitive 
advantage over private sector workplace plans, while providing fewer 
basic consumer protections to the workers who would be forced to 
contribute to them.
  As I mentioned when we voted on related regulations concerning 
municipalities, States always had the power to set up these plans, but 
until this regulation, they had to actually follow Federal laws that 
protect the workers who would be automatically enrolled. In other 
words, States preferred that the basic retirement protections that 
apply to those who manage private sector retirement plans not apply to 
the government as well.
  As a coalition of employers and human resource managers recently 
pointed out, the Obama administration was ``encouraging State 
governments to provide private sector employees retirement programs 
that do not''--I repeat, do not--``have the same high-level protections 
as other private employer-sponsored plans.'' So, as they put it, 
``passage of [the legislation before the Senate] would ensure that all 
retirement plans''--all of them--``for private sector workers are 
subject to equal consumer protections under the law.''
  That is why we will vote today to overturn this regulation, which 
undermines a private retirement savings system that millions of 
Americans have counted on for decades. By blocking this State-run 
retirement regulation--as we already did with a similar regulation 
aimed at municipalities--we can empower families in making their own 
decisions when it comes to saving for the future.
  So I want to recognize Senator Hatch, the Finance Committee chairman, 
who has been leading the charge on this important issue. We look 
forward to sending this resolution to the President's desk very soon.

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