The Senate on Thursday voted to overturn Labor Department rules that help state and local governments set up retirement savings plans for private workers who have no access to such plans.
The state and local retirement savings plans were crafted to help minimize financial burdens on social, welfare and healthcare programs from private workers who have not set up their own retirement savings.
The Senate used the Congress Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn recent regulations, to undo the Labor Department regulations, which were adopted last August.
The final vote was 50-49, breaking mainly along partisan lines.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who authored the bill overturning the rules, earlier this month said they are “yet another example of the previous administration’s preference for government solutions to every problem and its affinity for over-regulation and bureaucratic red tape,” according to a release.
He added that the rules “encourage more mandates on job creators and promote locking American workers in risky state-run plans.”
The National Conference of Sate Legislatures estimates that 55 million Americans work for employers that don’t offer retirement savings plans, and state and local communities are concerned that these retirees will overload state and local social welfare programs, according to a report in the Bond Buyer.
That report showed that since 2012, 30 states and localities have started offering retirement plans for private employees or have considered doing so.
