We hear from our friends in Washington DC that a U.S. Senate vote on a House Joint Resolution (H.J. Res. 66) that would impede states from improving retirement security for private workers could come today or tomorrow. It won’t come to a vote unless Republican leaders in the Senate think that the resolution will pass – so now is the time for Pennsylvanians to make their voice heard with Sen. Toomey. If he votes against H.J. Res 66 as he should, joining Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, that can send it down.
To refresh your memory, Sen. Toomey should be with us on this issue. A growing number of states have stepped in to help private workers who have no retirement plan at all through their job – more than half of all private workers (about 3 million in Pennsylvania) – set up a savings plan into which they would contribute a small part of their paycheck each pay period. This approach empowers people to save for retirement using their own money, thereby supporting personal responsibility. This approach relieves small businesses of the headaches of researching and setting up a retirement savings plan for their employees. This is why Small Business Majority strongly supports this approach (along with the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce). And it’s another reason why Sen. Toomey, who speaks often of the importance of small business, should support this approach and vote NO on H.J. Res 66.
In an earlier blog, we walked through the details on why Sen. Toomey was wrong to vote with Wall Street and in favor of a companion resolution (H.J. Res. 67) that already impeded big cities from enabling their private workers from saving for retirement. (Here is the Economic Policy Institute’s summary on the same issue.) That earlier blog also explained that there is a bipartisan effort in Pennsylvania to begin studying and then setting up retirement savings options for private workers without them.
What’s urgent TODAY is that people need to call Senator Toomey’s offices (here are the phone numbers). Let him know that he should vote with small business, with Main St. Savers, and for personal responsiblity – by rejecting H.J. Res. 66.