Advancing Commonsense Policies Act

Full Title:
Advancing Commonsense Policies Act

Summary#

This bill, the Advancing Commonsense Policies Act, makes many changes across retirement plans, veteran apprenticeships, criminal penalties near schools, semiconductor investment work, NASA leasing, and other federal programs. Key items include expanding automatic enrollment rules for many workplace retirement plans, letting employers match student loan payments for retirement matching, raising some retirement distribution ages and catch-up limits, creating a Retirement Savings Lost and Found database, updating rules for pooled and multiple-employer plans, and many technical changes to pension law. It also adds veteran-focused apprenticeship website and education, a Boots to Business entrepreneurship program, stronger penalties for sex trafficking and coercion near schools or college campuses, a SelectUSA effort on semiconductor foreign direct investment, a commission to study a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture, and a one-year extension for certain livestock reporting. The bill contains many other targeted changes affecting plan corrections, hardship withdrawals, annuities, and plan disclosure rules.

What it means for you#

  • If you are a worker, your workplace retirement plan may be required to use automatic enrollment and gradual contribution increases in many new cases. Some part-time workers may become eligible sooner.
  • If you repay student loans, some employers could make matching retirement contributions based on your loan payments if your employer adopts that feature and you certify payments.
  • If you are near retirement, the required distribution ages and catch-up limits for some accounts may change over time as the bill indexes ages and amounts.
  • If you served in the military, the bill funds and expands apprenticeship information and creates a Boots to Business program offering entrepreneurship training and materials.
  • If you lost track of a previous employer retirement account, a new "Retirement Savings Lost and Found" online database would be created to help you find plan administrators.
  • If you are a victim of domestic abuse, the bill allows limited penalty-free withdrawals from retirement plans and gives a period to repay those amounts.
  • If you are involved with a school or college, the bill increases prison terms for trafficking or coercion offenses committed in school zones or within 1,000 feet of school-related activities.
  • If you follow national security or supply chains, the bill directs SelectUSA to study and report on ways to attract foreign direct investment for domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

Expenses#

The bill includes specific one-time appropriations listed in the text. Examples shown include $1,000,000 each for: a Telehealth Resource Center activity at HHS, an Office of Budget and Program Analysis item at USDA, the State Department Capital Investment Fund, an Army operation and maintenance item at DOD, a DHS Management Directorate operations item, and an Energy Information Administration item at DOE. The listed appropriations in those lines total $6,000,000. For most other provisions, the bill directs agencies to issue regulations, studies, reports, or to create websites or programs; the text does not provide full cost estimates for those actions. When costs or budgetary effects are not included in the bill text, there is no publicly available information on their size.

Proponents' View#

The bill text includes findings and program goals that describe expected benefits. Supporters, based on the bill language, emphasize that the measures aim to:

  • Increase worker retirement saving through automatic enrollment, higher saver credits, indexed catch-up limits, and easier corrections for plan errors.
  • Make retirement plans more flexible and easier to join for part-time workers and small employers, and to help people find lost accounts.
  • Support veterans and transitioning service members by improving access to registered apprenticeships and entrepreneurship training.
  • Strengthen protections around schools by raising penalties for trafficking and coercion in school zones.
  • Encourage domestic semiconductor manufacturing and resilience by directing SelectUSA to work with states and propose strategies to boost foreign direct investment in targeted semiconductor segments.
  • Improve plan administration, disclosure, and participant protections through regulatory updates and studies described in the bill.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.