Providing for Consideration of H.R. Consumers First Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of Providing for Proceedings During the Period From May Through May and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. PANETTA. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Woodall for his advocacy as well as his oratory skills.

As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I want to talk about the SECURE Act and obviously the work that we did in the Ways and Means Committee in regard to not only H.R. 1994 but, more particular, a certain part of that bipartisan legislation that helps home healthcare workers save for their retirement. That would include the over 375,000 home healthcare workers in my home State of California.

Madam Speaker, we know that home healthcare is usually less expensive. It is more convenient and, most times, just as effective as the care people receive in a hospital or in a skilled nursing facility.

Home healthcare workers not only provide critical services for seniors and those with physical, mental, or emotional disabilities, but they also ensure that our loved ones with special needs are able to live their lives in a dignified manner.

That dignity, that skill, and that care, I can tell you, is something that I experienced firsthand throughout my childhood when my grandmother suffered a debilitating stroke and had to live with us. We took her in realizing that the effects of her stroke were permanent. That is when my family decided to ensure that she had appropriate home healthcare, not just the family but with full-time home healthcare workers.

With both my parents working full-time, we were forced--but, yes, we were also fortunate--to hire home healthcare workers, people who actually came into our home, took care of my grandmother, and allowed her to live a life with dignity and with the care necessary to enjoy the latter years of her life.

However, and unfortunately, right now under the current Federal Internal Revenue Code, home healthcare providers like those who cared for my grandmother are not able to participate in a retirement plan or save in an IRA. If you are a home healthcare worker in California who works in and helps out families, then you would be ineligible to participate in the CalSavers retirement program due to the current Federal law.

That is why this bill is so important, because it would allow home healthcare workers to contribute to a defined contribution plan or IRA, giving home healthcare workers the ability to save and prepare for their own retirement.

These healthcare workers give our family members dignity. This is the least that we can do for home healthcare workers so that they can retire with dignity.

That is what this bill does. That is one of the reasons why, as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I did vote for this bill. It is also why I urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying legislation.

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