Trump Signs Order Barring Cities From Requiring Small Businesses to Offer 401ks

President Trump last week signed a resolution that nixes a rule, implemented by Obama, that allowed cities to require small businesses without any retirement plan options to offer employees a 401k.

No city had yet created such a rule, but several major cities — including New York City and Seattle — were considering it.

From the Society for Human Resource Management:

Cities and counties will now be barred from requiring small businesses without 401(k)-type retirement plans to enroll workers into a government-run individual retirement account (IRA).

Meanwhile, a measure to block a requirement for similar small businesses to participate in auto-enroll IRAs run by the state still awaits a Senate vote.

On April 13, President Donald Trump signed Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution H.J. Res 67, which blocks an Obama-administration Department of Labor rule to push local governments to create auto-IRAs. The House and Senate had voted in favor of the resolution to nix the rule by party-line votes in March.

No municipalities had launched their own IRAs for nongovernment workers, although New York City, Philadelphia and Seattle all have considered doing so under the Labor Department rule, the New York Times reported.

The House also passed a resolution, H.J. Res 66, to roll back a DOL rule allowing state governments to set up mandatory auto-IRA programs for small employers that don’t provide retirement plans for their employees. A Senate vote is expected when Congress returns later in April from its Easter recess, as May 9 is the deadline for passing a CRA resolution to block the rule.

Business groups support the rollback, but other groups and states strongly supported the rules.