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Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Madam President, today I am introducing the Auto Reenroll Act of 2023, alongside Senator Cassidy. Enacting this bill would improve financial security for Americans by strengthening their private retirement savings.

Nearly 7 in 10 Americans working in the private sector have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans, but a quarter of those with access do not participate in those plans. This means less money saved for retirement. Often, it means leaving money on the table, in the form of employer-matching contributions. Encouraging more employees to participate in their workplace plans would increase their overall compensation and improve their financial security and retirement outlook.

The Auto Reenroll Act of 2023 would boost participation by encouraging safe harbor retirement plans to adopt automatic reenrollment features. Automatic enrollment plans have been tremendously successful at encouraging workers to participate in employer-sponsored plans, but employees who opt out of participating at the beginning of their tenure will likely never reconsider that decision. This bill would build on the success of auto enrollment by permitting employers to reenroll nonparticipants once every 3 years, providing them another opportunity to consider participation. This would encourage those employees to reassess their nonparticipation as their financial situation evolves.

I encourage my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation to bolster private retirement savings. ______

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