WASHINGTON – The Pension Rights Center joined Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.), Congressman Rob Andrews (D-NJ), AARP, and other groups today at a press conference calling on the Senate to restore 401(k) fee disclosure provisions to the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 (H.R. 4213).
“The 401(k) fee disclosure provisions are critical to protecting the retirement security of American workers,” said Karen Friedman, the Center’s executive vice president and policy director. “If the Senate strips out these provisions, they are going to be eating humble pie for years to come, when they see ordinary Americans who are unable to make ends meet because their balances have been eroded by Wall Street’s high investment fees. Transparent and straightforward 401(k) fee disclosure is as American as apple pie.”
The 401(k) fee provisions were part of H.R. 4213 when the bill passed the House of Representatives in May, but the Senate Finance Committee stripped them out when it took up the bill last week.
As part of the event, Rep. Miller displayed pies that were going to be delivered to members of the Senate Finance Committee. Each pie was missing a slice equal to approximately 28 percent of the pie to represent the fees that eat into people’s 401(k) accounts over a lifetime. Miller is chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and lead sponsor of the 401(k) fee disclosure provisions that were removed from H.R. 4213.
The event comes a day after the Pension Rights Center and seven other organizations sent a group letter to the members of the Senate, asking them to restore the provisions. The organizations that signed onto the letter are the AFL-CIO, Alliance for Retired Americans, B’nai B’rith, Consumer Federation of America, National Consumers League, National Women’s Law Center, OWL-The Voice of Midlife and Older Women, and the Pension Rights Center.