参议员Jeff MerkleyChampions a Cheaper 401 (k) Alternative

Where others before him have failed, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon is championing a new savings vehicle to boost retirement security for the American workforce. He joins a coterie of policymakers and think tank denizens who are concerned about the 68 million full- and part-time workers without access to an employer-sponsored pension.

梅克利美国储蓄账户法案拟议于1月底，梅尔克利的美国储蓄账号将为私营部门创造一个普遍退休计划。美国储蓄账户（ASA）反映了旧货储蓄计划（TSP）的一些最佳特征，被认为是为联邦雇员创建的最佳设计和最低价格的贡献计划之一，包括国会成员。

“Let’s make it simple and easy for ordinary people to take advantage of tax-preferred plans, not something that is mostly available to people in well-established businesses and well advanced in their careers,” says Merkley, the two-term Democrat from Myrtle Creek, who raised his two children in the same blue-collar neighborhood where he grew up.

亚拉斯将包括通过工资单扣除雇主和雇员的自动注册和定期捐款。他们将提供终身携带性，需要雇主的努力 - 除了3％的年度贡献之外 - 并为参与者提供资金滚动灵活性。在典型的个人退休账户翻转的逆转中，从工作场所计划到IRA，ASAS将接受IRA。更重要的是，如果ASA参与者采取了401（k）的工作，她可以将ASA计划滚入工作场所养老金，将资产保持在一个中心位置。至于费用，ASA可能会遵循TSP的领导，其中包括少数索引共同资金收费0.029％。

“我们希望随着时间的推移来建立支持，即汽车注册是有道理的，”梅尔克利说，强调“做一些非常简单的东西而不是小雇主的事情而不是大头痛的重要性 - 只是另一个检查标记在薪资服务中招收人们。”

Over the past several decades, attempts to create national or state-wide retirement plans have run aground. Take the Automatic IRA, which was officially announced in 2006 at conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation by its authors, David John andJ. Mark Iwry., then senior fellows at Heritage and the centrist Brookings Institution, respectively. Both John McCain and Barack Obama promoted the proposed savings plan in their 2008 presidential campaigns. Since then, though, the Auto IRA has been submitted in every federal budget without success.

In a March paper entitled “构建国家退休Saving Plans: A Guide to Policy Design and Management Issues“John，现在是基于华盛顿的布鲁克斯退休保安项目的副主任，项目总监William Gale为汽车IRA辩护 - 以及新退休计划的必要性。（约翰还专门从事AARP公共政策研究所的养老金和退休储蓄的高级战略顾问。）“虽然没有雇主的计划的工人可以贡献个人退休账户，但很少有措施，”他们写道。

Among workers who earn between $30,000 and $50,000, only about one out of 20 contributes regularly to an IRA, according to a 2006 study by the Washington-based Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Bids to create new retirement savings vehicles for the private sector have met with fierce resistance from the financial services industry. If a fund design moves out of committee and is put before Congress for a vote, lobbying efforts to kill the bill begin in force. A notable survivor is myRA, an entry-level plan created by the U.S. Department of the Treasury that consists solely of T-bills; this offering has been available since late 2015 to any American worker with an account under $15,000.

“We have long supported the goal of increasing American workers’ opportunities to save for retirement,” the Washington-based Investment Company Institute (ICI), the mutual fund industry’s lobbying group, said in a statement on ASAs. “Unfortunately, we believe that Senator Merkley’s legislation, while well intended, is premised on unrealistic assumptions about the ability to extend the inherent cost efficiencies of the Federal Thrift Savings Plan to private sector employees.” The ICI’s suggested alternative: a so-called starter 401 (k) like myRA, or other mutual fund–based plans for small investors.

ASA Bill在低成本退休计划的倡导者中具有粉丝。David Madland美国工人项目的高级顾问，美国的进度中心，一家位于华盛顿的中心人认为坦克，一直呼吁沿着联邦TSP的线路储蓄车辆。从Madland的Inspirating中获奖的Merkley邀请他加入官方ASA公告。“我们非常喜欢这个概念，”麦莉说。“显然是我们需要走的正确方向。”

The ASA proposal, which would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, now sits with the Senate Finance Committee for review. “I think this bill has as good or better chance as any legislation,” Madland contends. But thanks to congressional deadlock, “even common-sense bills like this face an uphill battle,” he notes.

Merkley acknowledges the headwinds that come with pushing for a retirement plan that precludes established mutual fund products. “The industry that provides high-fee plans is not excited about providing low-fee options,” he says.

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