In a joint statement, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York, the City Council president, the city’s public advocate and a council member said
that they were “deeply disappointed that Congress has voted to overturn the Department of Labor rule providing a safe harbor for us to create retirement savings plans for private sector employees.”
“This vote does little more than block them — the majority of whom are women and people of color — from securing their futures,” the statement said.
Critical of what he called the “competitive advantage”
that the rules might give cities and states over private-sector retirement offerings, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said the Labor Department statutes spelled “more government at the expense of the private sector.”
“These retirement savings regulations are a classic case of the whole being worse than the sum of its parts,” he said.
Five states have also passed legislation permitted by a similar Labor Department regulation, which gives the
states the power to appoint private money managers who would oversee portable savings accounts for workers.
New York City, Philadelphia and Seattle all have considered retirement plans taking advantage of
the Labor Department rule — what they call a “safe harbor” — that Republicans seek to reverse.
R.A.’ Rule -
By NOAH WEILANDMARCH 30, 2017
WASHINGTON — By a single vote, the Senate gave final approval on Thursday to a measure to block cities
and counties from organizing retirement savings accounts for workers who have no access to employer-sponsored plans.