29 USC 1147 - National Summit on Retirement Savings

View all text of Part 5 [§ 1131 - § 1153]

§ 1147. National Summit on Retirement Savings

(a) Authority to call Summit

Not later than July 15, 1998, the President shall convene a National Summit on Retirement Income Savings at the White House, to be co-hosted by the President and the Speaker and the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and the Majority Leader and Minority Leader of the Senate. Such a National Summit shall be convened thereafter in 2001 and 2005 on or after September 1 of each year involved. Such a National Summit shall—

(1) advance the public’s knowledge and understanding of retirement savings and its critical importance to the future well-being of American workers and their families;

(2) facilitate the development of a broad-based, public education program to encourage and enhance individual commitment to a personal retirement savings strategy;

(3) develop recommendations for additional research, reforms, and actions in the field of private pensions and individual retirement savings; and

(4) disseminate the report of, and information obtained by, the National Summit and exhibit materials and works of the National Summit.

(b) Planning and direction

The purpose of the National Summit shall be—

(1) to increase the public awareness of the value of personal savings for retirement;

(2) to advance the public’s knowledge and understanding of retirement savings and its critical importance to the future well-being of American workers and their families;

(3) to facilitate the development of a broad-based, public education program to encourage and enhance individual commitment to a personal retirement savings strategy;

(4) to identify the problems workers have in setting aside adequate savings for retirement;

(5) to identify the barriers which employers, especially small employers, face in assisting their workers in accumulating retirement savings;

(6) to examine the impact and effectiveness of individual employers to promote personal savings for retirement among their workers and to promote participation in company savings options;

(7) to examine the impact and effectiveness of government programs at the Federal, State, and local levels to educate the public about, and to encourage, retirement income savings;

(8) to develop such specific and comprehensive recommendations for the legislative and executive branches of the Government and for private sector action as may be appropriate for promoting private pensions and individual retirement savings; and

(9) to develop recommendations for the coordination of Federal, State, and local retirement income savings initiatives among the Federal, State, and local levels of government and for the coordination of such initiatives.

(d) Scope of National Summit

(e) National Summit participants

(1) In general

To carry out the purposes of the National Summit, the National Summit shall bring together—

(A) professionals and other individuals working in the fields of employee benefits and retirement savings;

(B) Members of Congress and officials in the executive branch;

(D) representatives of private sector institutions, including individual employers, concerned about promoting the issue of retirement savings and facilitating savings among American workers; and

(E) representatives of the general public.

(2) Statutorily required participation

The participants in the National Summit shall include the following individuals or their designees:

(A) the Speaker and the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives;

(B) the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader of the Senate;

(D) the Chairman and ranking Member of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate;

(E) the Chairman and ranking Member of the Special Committee on Aging of the Senate;

(F) the Chairman and ranking Member of the Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education of the Senate and House of Representatives; and

(G) the parties referred to in subsection (b).

(3) Additional participants

(A) In general

There shall be not more than 200 additional participants. Of such additional participants—

(i) one-half shall be appointed by the President, in consultation with the elected leaders of the President’s party in Congress (either the Speaker of the House of Representatives or the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, and either the Majority Leader or the Minority Leader of the Senate; 1

1 So in original. A closing parenthesis probably should precede the semicolon.

and

(ii) one-half shall be appointed by the elected leaders of Congress of the party to which the President does not belong (one-half of that allotment to be appointed by either the Speaker of the House of Representatives or the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, and one-half of that allotment to be appointed by either the Majority Leader or the Minority Leader of the Senate).

(B) Appointment requirements

The additional participants described in subparagraph (A) shall be—

(i) appointed not later than January 31, 1998;

(ii) selected without regard to political affiliation or past partisan activity; and

(iii) representative of the diversity of thought in the fields of employee benefits and retirement income savings.

(4) Presiding officers

(f) National Summit administration

(1) Administration

In administering this section, the Secretary shall—

(A) request the cooperation and assistance of such other Federal departments and agencies and other parties referred to in subsection (b) as may be appropriate in the carrying out of this section;

(B) furnish all reasonable assistance to State agencies, area agencies, and other appropriate organizations to enable them to organize and conduct conferences in conjunction with the National Summit;

(C) make available for public comment a proposed agenda for the National Summit that reflects to the greatest extent possible the purposes for the National Summit set out in this section;

(D) prepare and make available background materials for the use of participants in the National Summit that the Secretary considers necessary; and

(E) appoint and fix the pay of such additional personnel as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this section without regard to provisions of title 5 governing appointments in the competitive service, and without regard to chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of such title relating to classification and General Schedule pay rates.

(2) Duties

The Secretary shall, in carrying out the responsibilities and functions of the Secretary under this section, and as part of the National Summit, ensure that—

(A) the National Summit shall be conducted in a manner that ensures broad participation of Federal, State, and local agencies and private organizations, professionals, and others involved in retirement income savings and provides a strong basis for assistance to be provided under paragraph (1)(B);

(B) the agenda prepared under paragraph (1)(C) for the National Summit is published in the Federal Register; and

(C) the personnel appointed under paragraph (1)(E) shall be fairly balanced in terms of points of views represented and shall be appointed without regard to political affiliation or previous partisan activities.

(3) Nonapplication of chapter 10 of title 5

(g) Report

(h) “State” defined

(i) Authorization of appropriations

(1) In general

(2) Authorization to accept private contributions

(j) Financial obligation for fiscal year 1998

The financial obligation for the Department of Labor for fiscal year 1998 shall not exceed the lesser of—

(1) one-half of the costs of the National Summit; or

(2) $250,000.

The private sector organization described in subsection (b) and contracted with by the Secretary shall be obligated for the balance of the cost of the National Summit.

(k) Contracts

(Pub. L. 93–406, title I, § 517, as added Pub. L. 105–92, § 4(a), Nov. 19, 1997, 111 Stat. 2141; amended Pub. L. 117–286, § 4(a)(190), Dec. 27, 2022, 136 Stat. 4327.)