U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Joins Colleagues Urging Senate Finance Committee To Reject Tax Changes To 401(k)’s

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin today joined a group of colleagues in a letter led by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) calling on the leadership of the Senate Finance Committee to reject changes to the tax system that would harm existing tax incentives for Americans to save for retirement. The letter comes as Senate Republicans are poised to release their own version of tax reform legislation later this week.

Senate Republicans may be considering making changes to the incentives Americans enjoy for retirement, specifically by adopting so-called “Rothification,” which would eliminate or limit the amount of pre-tax money that can be contributed to these 401(k) accounts. In the letter, Senate Democrats highlight research showing that workers at all income levels participating in employer-sponsored retirement plans contribute on average at least $2,700 annually to their accounts. This amount exceeds the $2,400 limit that Republicans reportedly have considered setting as a new pre-tax limit for retirement account contributions.

The senators wrote: “Congress needs to do more to improve retirement incentives for the American people, not less. Dramatically altering incentives for retirement simply to raise short-term revenue to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy is a cynical ploy that will harm hardworking Americans in every state.”

The full text of the letter is available here.

Joining Senator Baldwin on the letter are Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tom Udall (D-NM), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Angus King (I-ME), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).