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Bill Clinton On The Issues 1996 - Protecting and Expanding Pensions Bill Clinton 1996 On The Issues

Protecting and Expanding Pensions

"I challenge every business that can possibly afford it to provide pensions for your employees. And I challenge Congress to ... make it easier for small businesses and farmers to establish their own
pension plans. That is something we should all agree on.”

—President Bill Clinton

President Clinton is expanding pension coverage to more of the 51 million Americans currently without a retirement savings plan, increasing pension portability for workers changing jobs and enhancing pension security so that retirement savings are there when they are needed. The President is seeking to increase every working American’s access to a secure retirement by:

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Establishing two new small business retirement savings plans. The President proposed and signed into law a new small business 401(k) plan and a new small business IRA plan that employers can establish with a simple one-page form to provide pensions for up to 10 million workers in small businesses who do not have pension coverage.
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Simplifying pension laws for businesses of all sizes. The President proposed and won enactment of a dramatic simplification of the pension laws, making it cheaper and easier for employers to set up pension plans. The Administration has also simplified pension regulations to encourage employers to establish and maintain these plans.
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Making non-profits eligible for 401(k) plans. Tax-exempt organizations, which employ 9 million people, were made eligible for 401(k) plans in the minimum wage law as the President proposed.
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Establishing a retirement savings education campaign. The President established an ongoing retirement savings education campaign involving 150 private co-sponsors and expanded it in 1996 to include a special focus on women’s particular pension needs.
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Discouraging a one-year wait to begin saving at a new job. Millions of workers have been forced to wait a year before they could join their new employers’ pension plan. President Clinton proposed and won enactment of a change in the law that encourages employers to stop imposing this one-year wait.
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Guaranteeing benefits for workers on the move. The President proposed and won enactment of the law that reduced the vesting period from 10 to 5 years for multi-employer plans, which cover union workers — such as construction workers — who frequently change jobs, immediately guaranteeing 1 million people their benefits.
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Securing portability for veterans. The President proposed and won enactment of changes in tax laws to ensure that veterans are not penalized and can continue their pension coverage when they return from service.
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Making it easier for workers to take their retirement savings with them when they change jobs. The Clinton Administration is taking administrative action to give employers a green light to let their new employees transfer their retirement savings from their previous employer to their new employer’s plan.
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Protecting the pension benefits of more than 40 million Americans. The President won enactment of his Retirement Protection Act in 1994. This protects the benefits of more than 40 million workers and retirees in traditional pension plans from being underfunded.
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Protecting government employees’ savings from Orange County-style fiascos. President Clinton won enactment of a law requiring state and local government retirement savings to be held in trust so that employees do not lose their savings if the government declares bankruptcy, as Orange County recently did.
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Recovering nearly $10 million in savings for workers and retirees. As a result of the Labor Department’s ongoing nationwide enforcement effort to protect retirement savings in defined contribution — 401(k) — plans, nearly $10 million has been recovered for workers.


Building on Our Progress

President Clinton will continue to help workers save for their retirements by expanding pension coverage, increasing pension portability, and enhancing pension protection. He will do so by:

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Working to expand IRAs. The President’s balanced budget makes another 20 million families eligible for IRAs by doubling the income limits and allowing penalty-free withdrawals for education, first home purchases, and major medical expenses, in addition to retirement.
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Helping more workers receive benefits after an employer goes out of business. The President will work to enact his legislative proposal to use the PBGC as a clearinghouse for terminated retirement savings plans to ensure that workers get the benefits they earned, even if they have long since left the job and the employer is no longer in business.
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Continuing to oppose corporate pension raids. The President will continue to oppose any legislation that encourages pension reversions, such as that in the 1995 GOP budget that would have allowed corporations to raid $15 billion from pension plans.
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Requiring prompt action on misuse of pension funds. The President has proposed legislation to require full-scale audits of large pension plans and to require plan administrators and accountants to report promptly serious misuse of pension funds.
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Strengthening protection of 9 million union workers’ savings. The President has proposed doubling the maximum level of annual benefits guaranteed under multi-employer plans. For 30-year workers, the level would be increased from $5,850 — set in 1980 — to $12,870.

Source: Bill Clinton for President 1996 Web Site

 

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