I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2005 
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to provide 
for greater spousal protection under defined contribution plans, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 1, 2019 
Ms. UNDERWOOD (for herself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. NORCROSS, and Ms. 
BONAMICI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committee on Fi-
nancial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act 
of 1974 to provide for greater spousal protection under 
defined contribution plans, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Women’s Retirement 
Protection Act of 2019’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Approximately 29 percent of households 
headed by individuals aged 55 through 74 have no 
defined benefit plan or retirement savings, according 
to 2016 data from the Survey of Consumer Fi-
nances. 
(2) Just over one-third of the private sector 
workforce does not have access to a retirement plan 
at the workplace, and only half of the workforce ac-
tually participates in a retirement plan. 
(3) Women’s retirement preparedness often lags 
significantly behind their male counterparts’, result-
ing in the median retirement income for women in 
2016 being just 58 percent of men’s retirement in-
come. 
(4) Women are 1.5 times as likely as men to 
live in poverty after age 65. 
(5) Women make up 2⁄3 of low-wage workers, 
even though they comprise less than half of all work-
ers, and low-wage workers are less likely than other 
workers to participate in a retirement plan at work. 
(6) Because of the pay gap, women working 
full-time, year-round typically lose $403,440 over a 
40-year career thereby requiring the average woman 
to work almost a decade longer than her male coun-
terpart to make up that career wage gap. 
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(7) Due to the lower lifetime wages stemming 
from unequal pay and caregiving duties, the average 
Social Security benefit for a woman age 65 or older 
is $14,044 a year, while men of the same age receive 
$18,173 a year, on average. 
(8) Just 1 in 5 part-time workers who work a 
full year are eligible for a retirement plan, and 
women are almost twice as likely to work part-time 
as men. 
(9) While traditional defined benefit retirement 
plans have spousal protections, defined contribution 
retirement plans, which have become increasingly 
common, currently provide no similar spousal protec-
tions. 
(10) Every year, more than 1,200,000 couples 
get divorced in the United States. After the family 
home, retirement savings tends to be the largest 
asset to be divided in a divorce. 
(11) While fees and expenses associated with 
retirement plans have been in decline, participants 
have seen direct charges for processing qualified do-
mestic relations orders increase significantly. 
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SEC. 3. INCREASING SPOUSAL PROTECTION UNDER DE-
FINED CONTRIBUTION PLANS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Part 2 of subtitle B of title I of 
the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 
(29 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.) is amended by inserting after 
section 205 the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 205A. ADDITIONAL SPOUSAL CONSENT REQUIRE-
MENTS. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Each individual account plan to 
which section 205 does not apply shall provide that, except 
as provided in subsections (c) and (d), no distribution may 
be made under the plan unless the spousal consent re-
quirements of subsection (e) are met. 
‘‘(b) COORDINATION WITH SECTION 205.—Nothing 
in this section shall be construed to exempt an individual 
account plan from the requirements of paragraph (1)(C) 
or (2) of section 205(b) with respect to any participant. 
‘‘(c) EXCEPTIONS FOR CERTAIN DISTRIBUTIONS.— 
Subsection (a) shall not apply to— 
‘‘(1) any distribution that is— 
‘‘(A) a minimum required distribution de-
scribed in section 4974(b) of the Internal Rev-
enue Code of 1986; 
‘‘(B) a result of the use of the partici-
pant’s accrued benefit as security for a loan, in-
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cluding any distribution required by reason of a 
failure to comply with the terms of such loan; 
‘‘(C) made upon hardship of the partici-
pant; or 
‘‘(D) permitted under section 203(e)(1) to 
be made without the consent of the participant; 
‘‘(2) any distribution in the form of a qualified 
joint and survivor annuity (as defined in section 
205(d)(1)), a qualified optional survivor annuity (as 
defined in section 205(d)(2)), a qualified preretire-
ment survivor annuity (as defined in section 205(e)), 
or a series of substantially equal periodic payments 
(not less frequently than annually) made for the 
joint lives (or life expectancies) of the participant 
and the participant’s spouse; or 
‘‘(3) in the case of a participant who does not 
elect a form of benefit described in paragraph (2) 
under the plan or who is participating in a plan that 
does not provide such a form of benefit, any dis-
tribution of the participant’s entire nonforfeitable 
accrued benefit if 50 percent of such accrued benefit 
is transferred to an individual retirement plan (as 
defined in section 7701(a)(37) of the Internal Rev-
enue Code of 1986) of the spouse of the participant. 
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A transfer described in paragraph (3) to an individual re-
tirement plan shall be treated in the same manner as a 
transfer under section 408(d)(6) of the Internal Revenue 
Code of 1986. 
‘‘(d) EXCEPTIONS FOR CERTAIN ROLLOVER CON-
TRIBUTIONS.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to any dis-
tribution that is an eligible rollover distribution (as de-
fined in section 402(f)(2)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code 
of 1986) made in the form of a direct trustee-to-trustee 
transfer within the meaning of section 401(a)(31) of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986— 
‘‘(1) to a plan to which this section or section 
205 applies; or 
‘‘(2) to an individual retirement plan (as de-
fined in section 7701(a)(37) of the Internal Revenue 
Code of 1986) if— 
‘‘(A) the beneficiary of such plan is the 
spouse of the participant, or the spousal con-
sent requirements of subsection (e) are met 
with respect to any designation of 1 or more 
other beneficiaries; and 
‘‘(B) the beneficiary of such plan (whether 
the spouse or other beneficiary designated 
under paragraph (1)) may not be changed un-
less— 
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‘‘(ii) due to exceptional circumstances, 
requiring the participant to seek the 
spouse’s consent would be inappropriate; 
or 
‘‘(iii) of such other circumstances as 
the Secretary of the Treasury may by reg-
ulations prescribe. 
‘‘(3) CONSENT
LIMITED
TO
SPOUSE
AND 
EVENT.—Any written consent by a spouse under 
paragraph (1), or the establishment by a participant 
that an exception under paragraph (2) applies with 
respect to a spouse, shall be effective only with re-
spect to that spouse and to the distribution or des-
ignation or change of beneficiary to which it relates. 
‘‘(4) CONSENT PERIOD.—For purposes of this 
subsection, the term ‘consent period’ means, with re-
spect to any distribution— 
‘‘(A) the 90-day period immediately pre-
ceding the date of such distribution; or 
‘‘(B) such other period as the Secretary of 
the Treasury may provide. 
‘‘(f) DISCHARGE OF PLAN FROM LIABILITY.—Rules 
similar to the rules of section 205(c)(6) shall apply for 
purposes of this section.’’. 
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(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
of part 2 of subtitle B of title I of the Employee Retire-
ment Income Security Act of 1974 is amended by insert-
ing after the item relating to section 205 the following 
new item: 
‘‘Sec. 205A. Additional spousal consent requirements.’’. 
(c) RIGHT OF ACTION.—Section 502(a) of the Em-
ployee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 
U.S.C. 1132) is amended by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of 
paragraph (10), by striking the period at the end of para-
graph (11) and inserting ‘‘; or’’, and by adding at the end 
the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(12) by an individual for appropriate relief in 
the case of a violation of the individual’s rights 
under section 205A.’’. 
(d) PARALLEL AMENDMENT TO SECTION 205.—Sec-
tion 205(c)(2)(B) of the Employee Retirement Income Se-
curity Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1055(c)(2)(B)) is amended 
by inserting ‘‘, because due to exceptional circumstances 
requiring the participant to seek the spouse’s consent 
would be inappropriate’’ after ‘‘located’’. 
SEC. 4. IMPROVING COVERAGE FOR LONG-TERM PART- 
TIME WORKERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 202 of the Employee Re-
tirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1052) 
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is amended by adding at the end the following new sub-
section: 
‘‘(c) SPECIAL RULE FOR CERTAIN PART-TIME EM-
PLOYEES.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—A pension plan that in-
cludes either a qualified cash or deferred arrange-
ment (as defined in section 401(k) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986) or a salary reduction agree-
ment (as described in section 403(b) of such Code) 
shall not require, as a condition of participation in 
the arrangement or agreement, that an employee 
complete a period of service with the employer (or 
employers) maintaining the plan extending beyond 
the close of the earlier of— 
‘‘(A) the period permitted under subsection 
(a)(1) (determined without regard to subpara-
graph (B)(i) thereof) and section 410(a)(1) of 
such Code (determined without regard to sub-
paragraph (B)(i) thereof); or 
‘‘(B) the first 24-month period— 
‘‘(i) consisting of 2 consecutive 12- 
month periods during each of which the 
employee has at least 500 hours of service; 
and 
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‘‘(ii) by the close of which the em-
ployee has attained the age of 21. 
‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—Paragraph (1)(B) shall not 
apply to employees who are included in a unit of em-
ployees covered by an agreement which the Secretary 
finds to be a collective bargaining agreement be-
tween employee representatives and 1 or more em-
ployers, if there is evidence that retirement benefits 
were the subject of good faith bargaining between 
such employee representatives and such employer or 
employers. 
‘‘(3) COORDINATION WITH OTHER RULES.—In 
the case of employees who are not highly com-
pensated employees (within the meaning of section 
414(q) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) and 
who are eligible to participate in the arrangement or 
agreement solely by reason of paragraph (1)(B): 
‘‘(A) EXCLUSIONS.—An employer may 
elect to exclude such employees from the deter-
mination of whether the plan that includes the 
arrangement or agreement satisfies the require-
ments of subsections (a)(4), (k)(3), (k)(12), 
(k)(13), (m)(2), (m)(11), and (m)(12) of sec-
tion 401 of such Code, section 410(b) of such 
Code, and section 416 of such Code. If the em-
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ployer so excludes such employees with respect 
to the requirements of any such provision, such 
employees shall be excluded with respect to the 
requirements of all such provisions. This sub-
paragraph shall cease to apply to any employee 
as of the first plan year beginning after the 
plan year in which the employee completes 1 
year of service (without regard to paragraph 
(1)(B) of this subsection). 
‘‘(B) TIME OF PARTICIPATION.—The rules 
of subsection (a)(4) and section 410(a)(4) of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 shall apply 
to such employees. 
‘‘(4) 12-MONTH PERIOD.—For purposes of this 
subsection, 12-month periods shall be determined in 
the same manner as under the last sentence of sub-
section (a)(3)(A), except that 12-month periods be-
ginning before January 1, 2019, shall not be taken 
into account.’’. 
(b) VESTING.—Section 203(b) of the Employee Re-
tirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 
1053(a)) is amended by redesignating paragraph (4) as 
paragraph (5) and by inserting after paragraph (3) the 
following new paragraph: 
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