The upcoming midterm elections could change the trajectory on many congressional priorities, but strengthening retirement security has remained a bipartisan issue.

Congressional leaders and their staffs are currently working to pass another retirement security package, referred to as SECURE 2.0, that could pass before a new Congress starts.

There are three bipartisan bills that House and Senate members are discussing behind the scenes, attempting to reconcile any differences between the bills and put forth a package aimed at bolstering Americans’ retirement security.

The House in March overwhelmingly passed the bipartisan Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022 on a 414-5 vote and both the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Senate Finance Committee have advanced similar bills since then.

The three bills include similar provisions to permit an employer to make matching contributions to a 401(k) plan, 403(b) plan or SIMPLE IRA based on qualified student loan payments; reduce the service requirement for part-time workers to participate in an employer’s retirement plan to two years from three; and enhance the startup tax credit for small businesses launching a retirement plan, among others, and will form the basis of a SECURE 2.0 package.

Once a final SECURE 2.0 package is finished, industry sources expect lawmakers to attach it to a piece of must-pass legislation, such as a spending bill.

“The biggest variable in my mind is not, ‘Can they find agreement on the substance of SECURE 2.0?’ but rather whether there will be a vehicle to attach it to,” said Kent Mason, a Washington-based partner with law firm Davis & Harman LLP. “If we know there’s a vehicle to attach it to, my confidence would go way up.”

In September, Congress passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through Dec. 16, which means another spending bill will have to pass by then to avoid a government shutdown.

That next spending bill could be an opportunity for SECURE 2.0 to pass, sources said, though a separate military spending bill that will also be taken up after the elections is another possibility.

At the moment, there’s optimism a SECURE 2.0 package will pass this year, according to a key senator. “I’m glad the HELP Committee passed my bipartisan bill to secure families’ finances with a unanimous vote, and I’m working with my colleagues in the House and across the aisle to ensure the end-of-year package includes a robust set of commonsense steps to strengthen families’ emergency and retirement savings and help them prepare for the future,” said Patty Murray, D-Wash., chairwoman of the HELP Committee, in a statement to Pensions & Investments.

If SECURE 2.0 isn’t passed this year, its legislative process will have to start anew when the next congressional session begins in January.

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