Senate Democrat leadership hoped to start fresh in 2022 with an attempt to revisit the nearly $2 trillion Build Back Better legislation, but that effort appears to have hit another snag.
According to a report in Politico, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told reporters that talks on the BBB legislation have pretty much stalled. “There is no negotiation going on at this time,” Manchin was reported as saying. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) indicated as much, acknowledging that Senate Democrats probably would not return to work on the BBB until after addressing voting rights legislation, which could extend until the end of January.
In fact, according to Politico and other reports, there have been no specific conversations about reviving the BBB bill since Sen. Manchin and President Biden spoke in late December, when Manchin indicated he could not support the legislation in its current form.
In mid-December, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) had floated a nearly 1,200-page Senate amendment to the House-passed version that addressed both technical and policy changes within the committee’s jurisdiction, but with Sen. Manchin and other lawmakers remaining opposed, the legislation was not considered before lawmakers adjourned for the end of the year.
The retirement plan provisions under Wyden’s proposal—such as the limits on “mega” Roths and in-plan Roth conversions—were consistent with the provisions that were included in the version (H.R. 5376) approved by the House of Representatives on Nov. 19.
A Dec. 10 post by Brian Graff, CEO of the ARA and Executive Director of NAPA, advised that final action on the legislation may be pushed back to 2022 and that several of the effective dates for the various retirement policy changes would likely be pushed back as well.
While the negotiations between House and Senate Democrats and the White House have been going on for months, the lawmakers still do still do not appear any closer to reaching agreement, and numerous outstanding issues remain, ranging from concerns about the underlying cost of the bill and its impact on the budget deficit, to raising the current $10,000 cap on deducting state and local taxes (SALT) and extending the expanded child tax credit, to name a few.
Nonetheless, in a Jan. 4 speech on the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) indicated that negotiations on the BBB would continue among congressional Democrats and the White House until the lawmakers get something done. “As I mentioned before Christmas, I intend to hold a vote in the Senate on BBB. And we’ll keep voting until we get a bill passed,” Schumer stated.
So at this point, it remains to be seen what happens with the limits on “mega” Roths, in-plan Roth conversions and other retirement plan changes included in the House-passed bill and whether they will remain intact in a resurrected Senate bill—if that even happens.
