WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1994, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019. This package builds on Republican reforms that passed the House twice in the 115th Congress.

The SECURE Act, led by Ways and Means Committee Members Kevin Brady (R-TX), Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-MA), and Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), was approved out of the Ways and Means Committee unanimously.

The bipartisan package passed the House 417 – 3, and now moves to the Senate for consideration.

SECURE Act builds on two years of GOP work.

Rep. Brady, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said on the House floor that this bill is a good product reflective of years of work by Committee Republicans.  Rep. Brady also said that “Chairman Neal deserves a great deal of credit” for working with Committee Members on both sides of the aisle to get this legislation across the finish line.

Speaking on the House floor on what the legislation does for workers, Rep. Brady stressed that the bill:

• Makes it easier for local businesses to join together to offer retirement plans for their workers.
• Gives Main Street businesses the flexibility to tailor retirement plans to best fit the needs of their workers.
• Allows Americans to save longer by removing the age limit for contributing to IRAs, increasing the minimum age for required withdrawals from 70.5 to 72.
• Encourages younger Americans to save earlier.
• Offers a “new baby savings” provision to allow families to make penalty-free withdrawals from their retirement accounts for the birth or adoption of a child.

Offers tax certainty to the children of our fallen heroes.

The Texas lawmaker also stressed that this bill offers certainty to Gold Star families.

“This provision was first made public in 2014, in a draft that was widely praised by Democrats and Republicans alike, brought to us by the Joint Committee on Taxation to make it simpler for families to file their kids’ taxes; and also to close some tax loopholes for the wealthy,” said Rep. Brady.  “Unfortunately, over five years and with scrutiny by both parties and tax experts at JCT, we still did not see this one unintended consequence.  And in this bill, we worked together – Republicans and Democrats – to make sure we honor our Gold Star families.”

Dem leadership, once again, were #ForThePolitics.

On the process that Democrat leadership forced upon lawmakers at the eleventh hour to appease special interest groups, Rep. Brady said it’s unfortunate Speaker Pelosi was able to poison bipartisan Committee work.

“This new House majority from day one have led a legislative agenda that is solely For the Politics.  And sadly that once again was put on display this week,” said Rep. Brady.  “If special interests can simply call those who lead our friends across the aisle whenever they want and poison the bipartisan work that’s done at the committee level, this is going to be a very unproductive Congress.”

Rep. Brady affirmed that Republicans “should be proud of what all we were able to achieve after two years of hard work” on this retirement savings legislation.

“But the way that this bill was changed in the dead of night after unanimous approval in committee is a dangerous precedent to set going forward,” stressed Rep. Brady. “One I truly hope my friends on the Left won’t allow to happen again.”