Smart Savings Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. LYNCH. I thank the gentleman from Maryland for yielding and for his kind words.
Mr. Speaker, as ranking member of the Federal Workforce Subcommittee, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4193, the Smart Savings Act.
This legislation, as has been previously described, would change the default investment option for the Thrift Savings Plan participants from the G Fund to the Lifecycle Fund, or L Fund. The L Fund uses age-appropriate investment allocations, which result in the higher returns that have been discussed here earlier.
First, I would like to thank my fellow cosponsors--the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa), Ranking Member Cummings from Maryland, Congressman Farenthold from Texas, Congressman Connolly from Virginia, and Congressman Woodall from Georgia--for working together on this bipartisan bill.
The Thrift Savings Plan is an important component of Federal workers' retirement assets. Given the negative impact of pay freezes, furloughs, and other challenges to the pay and benefits of our Federal workforce over the last few years, I feel it is appropriate for Congress to provide investment options that will help Federal employees maximize their retirement contributions and savings. Changing the default investment option to the L Fund makes a lot of sense because the L Funds have substantially outperformed the G Fund over the last several years. However, the bill would also allow employees who are risk averse the ability to opt out and change their investment options.
The House passed a substantially similar bill in the 110th Congress, but it was never enacted. This time around, I am hoping that this commonsense proposal will become law as a substantially similar bill in the Senate was recently approved in committee. H.R. 4193 is supported by many stakeholders, including the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, the Employees Thrift Advisory Council, and various employee organizations.
This legislation provides the dedicated men and women of our Federal workforce a reasonable option that, I believe, would help them more effectively provide for their own retirements. I urge my colleagues to join all of the cosponsors in supporting H.R. 4193.
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