Four committee gavels will set 2027 retirement agenda

Four committee chairmanships will set what retirement legislation can move in 2027, as Republicans defend a 218-214 House majority and a 53-47 Senate in the Nov. 3 midterms.

Tina Anstett, an ERISA strategist in J.P. Morgan Asset Management's Retirement Insights team, called the four committees the 'gates' for retirement legislation in a Sept. 29 legislative and regulatory update.

For advisors and plan sponsors, tax and ERISA proposals will start in different committees in 2027. Tax rules for qualified plans and IRAs run through House Ways and Means and Senate Finance. ERISA fiduciary standards and DOL oversight run through House Education and Workforce and Senate HELP. That split means a tax bill and DOL oversight could move on separate tracks in 2027. A House flip would replace the House gavels and leave the Senate ones in place if Republicans hold the Senate.

She wrote that Jason Smith (R-MO) would be well positioned to keep the Ways and Means gavel if Republicans hold the House. Richard Neal (D-MA) is the leading candidate if Democrats win it. "A Neal chairmanship could be especially consequential for retirement policy," she wrote, saying Neal would enter the 120th Congress with "substantial experience developing bipartisan savings and coverage initiatives." She added that Democratic control could elevate proposals on access for uncovered workers, incentives for lower- and moderate-income savers, portability, automatic enrollment and other coverage-expansion measures.

Democrats need a net gain of four seats in either chamber to take control. 401(k) Specialist reported that forecasts cited by the Investment Company Institute project Democratic gains of 12 to 25 House seats, and that the Senate map runs through Texas, Michigan, Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine and Ohio, all held by Republicans except Michigan.

Whichever party takes the gavels inherits pending retirement bills. As Private Wealth Daily previously reported, eight retirement groups pressed Congress in October for technical corrections to SECURE 2.0, including a fix for a missing distribution trigger that blocks terminally ill participants from taking plan distributions solely because of their diagnosis.