jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-07-11 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the House on September 16, 2016. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Empowering Employees through Stock Ownership Act 

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow an employee to elect to defer, for income tax purposes, income attributable to certain stock transferred to the employee by an employer.

The employee may defer the inclusion of income from the stock until the year that includes the earliest of the dates on which:

 the stock becomes transferable; the employee becomes an excluded employee; stock of the corporation becomes readily tradable on an established securities market; seven years have passed after the rights of the employee in the stock are transferable or are not subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture, whichever occurs earlier; or the employee revokes the election with respect to the stock. The stock must meet specified requirements and be transferred to the employee from an eligible corporation in connection with the performance of services as an employee.

A corporation is eligible if: (1) no stock of the corporation or a predecessor of the corporation is readily tradable on an established securities market during any preceding calendar year, and (2) it has a written plan under which at least 80% of all employees who provide services to the corporation in the United States (or a U.S. possession) are granted stock options, or restricted stock units, with the same rights and privileges to receive qualified stock.

Employees are excluded if they: (1) are a 1% owner, the chief executive officer, or the chief financial officer of the corporation or have been at any time during the 10 preceding calendar years; (2) are a family member of the specified individuals; or (3) have been one of the four highest compensated officers of the corporation during any of the 10 preceding taxable years.

The corporation transferring stock must notify employees regarding the option of deferring income and meet specified withholding and reporting requirements.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-07-13 00:00:00

Train the Future Act

 This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow an early distribution, without penalty, from a qualified retirement plan to an employee who is serving as a mentor. The bill defines "mentor" as a working individual who: (1) has attained age 55; (2) works reduced hours and engages in mentoring activities for at least 20% of such hours; and (3) is responsible for the training and education of employees or students in an area of expertise for which such individual has a professional credential, certificate, or degree.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-11-17 00:00:00

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude certain purchases of employee-owned stock from being considered as outstanding voting stock for the purpose of the tax on excess business holdings of a private foundation in a business enterprise.

The bill applies to any voting stock that is: (1) not readily tradable on an established securities market; (2) purchased by the business enterprise on or after January 1, 2005, from a stock bonus or profit sharing plan in which employees of the business enterprise participate, in connection with a distribution from the plan; and (3) held by the business enterprise as treasury stock, cancelled, or retired.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-11-29 00:00:00

This bill requires the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Labor to cooperate to modify specified returns required for deferred compensation plans and other employee benefit plans to permit all members of a group of plans to file a single aggregated annual return or report satisfying the requirements of both the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

The requirement applies to a group in which all of the plans:

 are individual account plans or defined contribution plans; have the same trustee, the same one or more named fiduciaries, the same administrator, and plan years beginning on the same date; and provide the same investments or investment options to participants and beneficiaries. The bill also specifies that, for the purposes of applying the numerical limitations related to the electronic filing of returns for deferred compensation plans, each plan for which information is provided on the return must be treated as a separate return.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-12-07 00:00:00

Use It or Choose It Act of 2016

This bill allows an individual, when moving from one position (i.e., any form of compensated employment, including part-time employment and independent contracting) within the workforce to another, to elect to retain any benefits (i.e., health care-related benefits, workers compensation, life insurance, family and medical leave, and annual, sick, paternity, or maternity leave) earned when occupying such position.

The bill requires contractual providers of such benefits to extend them on the same terms and conditions as those provided to employees in the former position, or those similarly situated. Employers accruing funds or reserves corresponding to leave or other benefits shall transfer such funds or reserves to new employers upon request.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-12-07 00:00:00

Graduate Student Savings Act of 2016 

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow funds paid to an individual to aid in the pursuit of graduate or postdoctoral study or research to be saved in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The bill permits the funds to be considered compensation for purposes of current law provisions that limit annual deductible IRA contributions to the lesser of: (1) the deductible amount permitted under current law, or (2) the compensation includible in the individual's gross income for the year.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-01-22 00:00:00

Automatic IRA Act of 2015

 Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) require certain employers who do not maintain qualifying retirement plans or arrangements to make available to their eligible employees a payroll deposit individual retirement account (IRA) arrangement (automatic IRA arrangement) which grants such employees the right to opt-out of participation; (2) require the Secretary of the Treasury to provide employers with a model notice for notifying employees of their opportunity to participate in an automatic IRA arrangement and to provide participants with an annual statement setting forth payments, earnings, value, and other specified information; (3) impose a penalty on employers who fail to provide eligible employees access to an automatic IRA arrangement; (4) allow employers who do not have more than 100 employees a tax credit for costs associated with establishing an automatic IRA arrangement; and (5) increase the dollar limitation on the tax credit for small employer pension plan startup costs.

Establishes an Automatic IRA Advisory Group to make recommendations regarding automatic IRA investment options

Requires the Secretary and the Secretary of Labor to jointly conduct feasibility studies on: (1) extending spousal consent requirements to automatic IRA arrangements; (2) automatically transferring amounts saved by employees in retirement bonds into alternative, private sector, diversified investments when employees' automatic IRA balances reach a certain dollar level; (3) using investment data to notify individuals with multiple small balance retirement accounts of consolidation options; and (4) using investment arrangements associated with automatic IRAs to assist in addressing the problem of abandoned accounts.

Directs the Secretaries to prescribe administrative guidance for the use of multiple employer plans by December 31, 2015.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-01-30 00:00:00

Shrinking Emergency Account Losses Act of 2015 or the SEAL Act

Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to loans made from a qualified employer pension plan, to: (1) extend the period for repayment of loans if a plan terminates or a plan participant becomes unemployed, and (2) prohibit plans from allowing the use of credit cards or similar arrangements to access loan amounts.

Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to modify regulations governing hardship distributions from qualified employer pension plans to allow participants to make additional contributions to a plan during the six month period following a hardship distribution.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Social welfare
Date: 2015-02-03 00:00:00

Reducing Overlapping Payments Act

 Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) of the Social Security Act to require reduced to zero the total of an individual's monthly disability insurance benefits and any spouse's, surviving spouse's, child's, widow's, widower's, or parent's OASDI benefits based on the individual's wages and self-employment income for any month before the individual attains retirement age in which that individual is entitled to both disability insurance benefits and unemployment compensation.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2015-05-13 00:00:00

Lifetime Income Disclosure Act 

 Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to require the quarterly pension benefit statement furnished to a participant or beneficiary with the right to direct the investment of assets in his or her account under an individual account plan to include a lifetime income disclosure at least once during any 12-month period.

Requires such lifetime income disclosure to set forth the lifetime income stream equivalent of the participant's or beneficiary's total benefits accrued. Defines a lifetime income stream equivalent of the total benefits accrued as the monthly annuity payment the participant or beneficiary would receive if those total accrued benefits were used to provide lifetime income streams to a qualified joint and survivor annuitant.

Directs the Secretary of Labor to:

 issue a model lifetime income disclosure, written in a manner which can be understood by the average plan participant; and prescribe assumptions that plan administrators may use in converting total accrued benefits into lifetime income stream equivalents. Declares that no plan fiduciary, plan sponsor, or other person shall have any liability under ERISA solely by reason of the provision of lifetime income stream equivalents derived in accordance with such assumptions and related rules and including explanations contained in the model lifetime income disclosure.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2015-06-18 00:00:00

Keep Our Pension Promises Act 

This bill repeals the elimination of the pension anti-cutback provisions under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. The anti-cutback provisions prohibit reductions in pension benefits to participants in multiemployer pension plans.

The bill amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to allow a plan sponsor of an eligible multiemployer plan to petition the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for a partition of a financially-troubled pension plan. PBGC is required to establish a legacy fund to cover the administrative and benefit costs resulting from a partition..

The bill amends the federal bankruptcy code to assign first claim priority to pension obligations under ERISA.

The bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) impose a limit of $1 million on the exemption of the gain from the exchange of real property in a like kind exchange, (2) prohibit the use of like kind exchanges for collectibles, (3) establish estate valuation rules for certain transfers of nonbusiness assets, and (4) limit estate tax discounts for certain individuals with minority interests in a business acquired from a decedent.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2015-09-30 00:00:00

Women's Pension Protection Act of 2015

This bill amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to: (1) extend spousal consent requirements to defined contribution pension plans, and (2) allow certain long-term part-time workers to participate in pension plans that include either a qualified cash or deferred arrangement or a salary reduction agreement.

Financial product or service providers who sell retirement financial products or services must provide purchasers of their products or services an easily accessible link to the website of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection to obtain information relating to retirement planning or later life economic security.

The Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor shall award grants to certain community-based organizations to improve the financial literacy of women who are working age or in retirement.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2015-10-07 00:00:00

Pension Accountability Act

This bill amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code to revise rules for voting on the suspension of pension benefits under multiemployer plans in endangered or critical status. The bill changes the voting procedure for suspending plan benefits to provide that a suspension shall go into effect unless a majority of plan participants and beneficiaries who cast a vote (currently, a majority of all plan participants and beneficiaries) reject the suspension. The bill also eliminates the authority of the Department of the Treasury, in the case of systemically important plans, to override a vote of plan participants to reject a suspension. A plan is systemically important if projected financial assistance to the plan will exceed $1 billion if suspensions are not implemented.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-11-19 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Church Plan Clarification Act of 2015 

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to the tax treatment of church pension plans, to: (1) provide that an organization otherwise eligible to participate in a church plan shall not be aggregated with another such organization and treated as a single employer with it for pension benefit rules and testing purposes unless one such organization provides at least 80% of the operating funds for the other organization during the recipient organization's preceding tax year and there is a degree of common management or supervision between the organizations, and (2) allow transfers and mergers of qualified church retirement plans without tax consequences.

The bill amends the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 to adopt benefit accrual limitations for church defined benefits plans established before 1982.

The bill also: (1) preempts any state law relating to wage, salary, or payroll payment, collection, deduction, garnishment, assignment, or withholding that would prohibit or restrict the inclusion in any church plan of an automatic contribution arrangement; and (2) allows church plans and their supporting organizations to invest plan assets in a group trust (as defined by Internal Revenue Service Revenue Rulings).
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-01-28 00:00:00

American Savings Account Act of 2016 

This bill amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to establish a new retirement option for all employees and self-employed individuals to be known as the American Savings Account Fund. This fund operates in a manner similar to the Thrift Savings Fund, which is available to federal employees.

The bill establishes an American Savings Account Board of Directors to establish policies for fund investment and management. The Board shall select or establish a list of investment funds and options similar to those in the Thrift Savings Fund, among which participants may choose.

The Board shall establish an American Savings Account Fund Advisory Council to advise the Board on matters relating to investment policies.

The American Savings Account Fund is tax-exempt and contributions to, or distributions from, it are excludible from gross income.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-02-03 00:00:00

Encouraging Americans to Save Act 

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to expand the tax credit for retirement savings contributions to: (1) make such credit refundable; (2) allow individual taxpayers (excluding dependents and full-time students) who have attained age 18 as of the close of the taxable year a credit for 50% of their retirement savings contributions up to $1,000; (3) increase the maximum income threshold for determining eligibility for the credit; and (4) allow direct deposit of credit amounts into the taxpayer's retirement savings vehicle (e.g., MyRA or Roth IRA account).

The Department of the Treasury shall educate taxpayers on the benefits of the credit for retirement savings contributions.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-02-04 00:00:00

Affordable Retirement Advice Protection Act

This bill amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to define "investment advice," as it relates to fiduciary duties under such Act, as a recommendation that relates to: (1) the advisability of acquiring, holding, disposing, or exchanging any moneys or other property of a pension plan (or Individual Retirement Account) by the plan, plan participants, or plan beneficiaries, including any recommendation regarding whether to take a distribution of benefits from the plan or any recommendation relating to a rollover or distribution from such plan; (2) the management of moneys or other property of the plan, including recommendations relating to the management of plan assets to be rolled over or otherwise distributed from the plan; or (3) the advisability of retaining or ceasing to retain a person who would receive a fee or other compensation for providing investment advice. Investment advice must be rendered pursuant to either: (1) a written acknowledgment of the obligation of the investment advisor to act in accordance with fiduciary standards under ERISA; or (2) a mutual agreement, arrangement, or understanding that may include limitations on scope, timing, and responsibility to provide ongoing monitoring or advice services.

The bill allows an exemption from ERISA prohibited transactions rules for investment advice: (1) for which no more than reasonable compensation is paid; or (2) that is based on a limited range of investment options or may result in variable income to the investment advisor if a clearly-stated notice is provided to the advice recipient that the same or similar investments may be available at a greater or lesser cost from other sources.

The bill prohibits the Department of Labor from amending any rules or administrative positions regarding investment advice promulgated under ERISA and no such rules or administrative positions promulgated prior to the enactment date of this Act, but not effective on January 1, 2015, may become effective unless a bill or joint resolution specifically approving such rules or positions is enacted not later than 60 days after the enactment of this Act.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-04-04 00:00:00

Keep Estimated Extra Payments Act 

This bill amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to permit the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and the Department of Labor to elect not to recoup overpayments of benefits to participants in multiemployer and single employer pension plans.

(The PBGC is a federal government agency created by ERISA to protect the pensions of participants and beneficiaries covered by private-sector, defined benefit pension plans.)
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-04-28 00:00:00

Pension Fund Integrity Act of 2016 

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to require salary reductions for certain employees of systemically important multiemployer pension plans that are in critical or declining status and that reduce participant benefits.

When a benefit suspension is in effect, any compensation paid to employees of a plan that exceeds the amounts specified in this bill is a prohibited transaction that is subject to a tax to be paid by the plan sponsor.

If a plan is in endangered, critical, or critical and declining status, payments for lobbying and political expenses for any person other than an employee of the plan are prohibited transactions and subject to a tax to be paid by the plan sponsor.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-06-07 00:00:00

Graduate Student Savings Act of 2016 

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow funds paid to an individual to aid in the pursuit of graduate or postdoctoral study or research to be saved in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The bill permits the funds to be considered compensation for purposes of current law provisions that limit annual deductible IRA contributions to the lesser of: (1) the deductible amount permitted under current law, or (2) the compensation includible in the individual's gross income for the year.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-06-21 00:00:00

Retirement Savings Lost and Found Act of 2016 

This bill requires the Department of the Treasury and the Social Security Administration (SSA) to create an online Retirement Savings Lost and Found (RSLF) to assist individuals in locating certain employer-sponsored retirement accounts. The RSLF must provide plan participants or beneficiaries only with the ability to view contact information for the administrator of a plan that is sufficient to locate the plan.

The bill amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to set forth additional reporting and notification requirements for retirement plans.

Treasury and the SSA must take precautions to: (1) safeguard the privacy and security of participants' plan information, and (2) permit plan participants to opt out of inclusion in the RSLF.

The bill amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the IRC to revise provisions that permit mandatory distributions of the balances of small retirement accounts using a rollover into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The bill modifies the investment options available for the distributions and increases the maximum account balance that may be subject to such a distribution.

A plan must transfer unclaimed mandatory distributions that are $1,000 or less to the RSLF or to an IRA established by the Department of the Treasury. The RSLF must invest funds received in Treasury securities and distribute the balance upon receiving an application from a plan participant or beneficiary.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-07-14 00:00:00

Pilot Pension Relief Act of 2016 

This bill revises the method for calculating the maximum guaranteed benefits required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) for participants in the pilot's pension plan that was sponsored by United Airlines and terminated under ERISA on December 30, 2004.