New federal retirement account auto-enrolls workers, adds government match
S. 1526 — Retirement Savings for Americans Act of 2025 · Filed by John Hickenlooper (D-CO) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 30, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a new federal retirement savings account called the American Worker Retirement Fund, automatically enrolling workers without employer retirement plans at a 3% contribution rate, with the federal government matching contributions via a tax credit. Workers can opt out, choose from six investment options (government bonds, fixed income, stock indexes, and target-date funds), and withdraw funds in retirement or under hardship conditions. The fund is managed by a five-member board appointed by the President and congressional leaders.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is establishing a new federal retirement savings account with automatic enrollment and government matching contributions. This is a public-benefit retirement security measure, not a tax cut, subsidy to a private party, or deregulation.
What the text implies
- Involuntary distribution rule (section 106(j)) forces high-income participants to withdraw contributions if gross income exceeds the section 414(q)(1)(B) threshold, potentially disrupting long-term savings for upper-middle-class workers and creating administrative complexity.
- Government match is funded via section 25F of the Internal Revenue Code (not quoted in this text), creating a tax expenditure whose size and mechanics depend on that external provision—the bill's cost to the Treasury is not fully transparent here.
- Automatic enrollment at 3% may be insufficient for retirement security; workers must actively increase contributions to receive the full government match, placing burden on financial literacy and active decision-making.
- Board composition (3 presidential appointees + 2 congressional recommendations) concentrates investment policy control in executive branch; congressional oversight is indirect.
- Asset manager cap at $500 billion or 10% of fund assets may fragment fund management and increase administrative costs as the fund grows.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands retirement savings access to workers lacking employer plans, provides automatic enrollment (reducing barriers to saving), includes a federal government match (free money), and allows opt-out (preserving choice). Workers gain a low-cost savings vehicle with professional investment management and spousal protections.
Who stands to gain
- workers without employer retirement plans
- asset managers selected to manage fund investments
- financial services firms providing custody, administration, and annuity services
Named in the bill
American Worker Retirement Fund, American Worker Retirement Investment Board, Executive Director, Investment Advisory Council, Secretary of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Code section 25F, Thrift Savings Plan, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Apr 30, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 30, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
12 lobbying clients named this bill on 19 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $16,436,500 in lobbying spend. A filing names 22 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 93% of bills with at least one filing.
John Hickenlooper, the sponsor, reported $975,352 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle. $2,000 of that came from 1 PAC tied to these lobbying clients.
- AARP — $5,300,000 on 1 filing
- Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association — $5,090,000 on 2 filings
- Investment Company Institute — $2,106,510 on 2 filings
- Principal Financial Group — $910,000 on 2 filings
- American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries — $829,990 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (50,094 characters) on May 1, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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