More U.S. workers would get opportunities to participate in an employer-provided retirement under a bipartisan retirement security bill introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The measure contains several provisions which the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) has long-supported and advocated for enactment.

Known as the Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act, the bill was initially introduced in previous session. It was re-introduced by Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wisc., and Mike Kelly, R-Pa., as the House Ways and Means Committee conducted a hearing Wednesday on retirement security.

The bill contains several measures to help Americans by expanding opportunities to save for retirement; increasing access to lifetime income products; helping savers make more-informed decisions about their finances for retirement and enhancing features of workplace retirement plans.

“Americans today face many challenges in saving for retirement because they do not have the opportunities or access to do so through a private sector workplace retirement plan,” said Wayne Chopus, IRI president and CEO. “The enactment of RESA would go a long-way in helping Americans to overcome the obstacles they now face in saving for their retirement.”

RESA would remove restrictions on the types of employers that can band together in a Multiple Employer Plan (open MEPs). Allowing small businesses to band together to achieve economies of scale and to delegate to a professional plan fiduciary responsibility for sponsoring the plan would facilitate more employers offering a retirement plan to workers.

To help workers ensure that they do not outlive retirement savings, RESA would expand access to lifetime income products provided by insurers that meet certain existing regulatory requirements enforced by state insurance regulators, such as capital and reserving standards.

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