WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced legislation to prevent left-wing activists from jeopardizing millions of Americans’ retirement savings.
“Fiduciaries’ sole responsibility is to prioritize what is best for the workers’ hard-earned savings,” said Dr. Cassidy “These pro-worker, pro-family bills protect millions of Americans’ retirement savings from political ideology.”
“Americans work hard for their retirement, and their money should be working for them, not to fund the Left’s woke agenda,” said Senator Banks. “This bill makes sure retirees know exactly where their savings are going so they can invest with confidence and common sense.”
Cassidy is leading the Restoring Integrity in Fiduciary Duty Act, which protects American workers’ retirements from progressive activists by reinforcing the boundaries of which fiduciaries may act within. Fiduciaries will only be able to consider the financial factors of an investment and make random choices when two investment options are identical. The bill also reaffirms that ERISA’s fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty include the exercise of shareholder rights and proxy voting.
Banks is leading the Providing Complete Information to Retirement Investors Act, which requires employer-sponsored defined contribution plans to explain to participants the difference between choosing investments selected by ERISA fiduciaries and those self-selected through a brokerage window. It also requires ERISA plans to provide a notice to investors each time they allocate money into or out of a brokerage window that such investments were not selected by a fiduciary and may result in lower returns. This bill passed the House of Representatives in September 2023 as part of the Roll back ESG To Increase Retirement Earnings Act.
Cassidy previously sounded the alarm over former President Biden’s ESG rule and attempted to overturn the rule by joining the bipartisan Congressional Review Act (CRA). After Biden vetoed the Senate and House passed CRA, Cassidy introduced the Restoring Integrity in Fiduciary Duty Act to eliminate ESG ideology from retirement savings. Recently, Cassidy championed the Trump administration's proposal to replace Biden’s reckless ESG rule.
###
For all news and updates from HELP Republicans, visit our website or Twitter at @GOPHELP