Bill makes it easier for pension plans to file yearly reports.
S. 4953 — Form 5500 Filing Simplification Act · Filed by Jim Banks (R-IN) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jul 13, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill changes how pension plans file reports each year. It gives plan managers 15 extra days to file. They now have 9 months and 15 days instead of 9 months. It lets them sign papers with electronic signatures. It tells three agencies to build a modern online filing system.
Who it affects
Workers and retirees may pay lower costs because filing is simpler. Plan managers benefit from more time and easier ways to file. The Treasury Department, Labor Department, and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation must build new systems.
One thing to notice
Three separate agencies must build the new filing system. The bill does not set a deadline or require them to work together, which could slow things down.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Jul 13, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 13, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $9,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 7 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Jim Banks, who sponsored the bill, received $553,626 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation — $9,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- plan managers — People or companies hired to run pension plans and file reports.
- electronic signatures — Digital ways to sign papers instead of writing your name by hand.
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation — A government agency that protects pensions if a company fails.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,279 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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 Jun 2026 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 Jun 12, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-23.
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