II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 988
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to provide
for greater spousal protection under defined contribution plans, and
for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH12, 2025
Ms. B
ALDWIN(for herself, Mrs. MURRAY, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. BLUMENTHAL,
Ms. H
IRONO, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. VAN
H
OLLEN, Mr. KAINE, Ms. WARREN, and Mr. MERKLEY) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act
of 1974 to provide for greater spousal protection under
defined contribution plans, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Women’s Retirement 4
Protection Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
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(1) Approximately 28 percent of non-retired 1
adults have no defined benefit plan or retirement 2
savings, according to 2023 data from the Board of 3
Governors of the Federal Reserve System. 4
(2) In 2023, approximately
1
⁄3of the private 5
sector workforce did not have access to a retirement 6
plan at the workplace, and only half of the workforce 7
actually participated in a retirement plan. 8
(3) Women’s retirement preparedness often lags 9
significantly behind their male counterparts’, result-10
ing in the median income for women aged 65 and 11
older in 2022 being just 83 percent of the median 12
income of men aged 65 and older, including income 13
from social security, pension plans, investments, and 14
earnings. 15
(4) Women aged 80 and older had the highest 16
poverty rate among older persons in all age groups, 17
with 14.7 percent of women aged 80 and older living 18
in poverty while 10.3 percent of men in the same 19
age group live in poverty. 20
(5) Women make up two-thirds of low-wage 21
workers, even though they comprise less than half of 22
all workers, and low-wage workers are less likely 23
than other workers to participate in a retirement 24
plan at work. 25
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(6) Because of the pay gap, women working 1
full-time, year-round typically lose $398,160 over a 2
40-year career thereby requiring the average woman 3
to work almost a decade longer than her male coun-4
terpart to make up that career wage gap. 5
(7) Due to the lower lifetime wages stemming 6
from unequal pay and caregiving duties, the average 7
Social Security benefit in 2023 for a woman was 8
$1,638 a month, while for men such average month-9
ly benefit was $2,020. 10
(8) While the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (Pub-11
lic Law 117–328) goes a long way to address this 12
coverage gap, just 1 in 5 part-time workers who 13
work a full year are eligible for a retirement plan, 14
and women are almost twice as likely to work part- 15
time as men. 16
(9) While traditional defined benefit retirement 17
plans have spousal protections, defined contribution 18
retirement plans, which have become increasingly 19
common, currently provide no similar spousal protec-20
tions. 21
(10) The Thrift Savings Plan of the Federal 22
Government, the largest defined contribution plan in 23
the world with approximately 6,500,000 partici-24
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pants, requires its married participants to have their 1
spouses’ consent for withdrawals and loans. 2
(11) There were almost 990,000 divorces in the 3
United States between 2020 and 2021. After the 4
family home, retirement savings tends to be the larg-5
est asset to be divided in a divorce. 6
(12) While fees and expenses associated with 7
retirement plans have been in decline, participants 8
have seen direct charges for processing qualified do-9
mestic relations orders increase significantly. 10
SEC. 3. INCREASING SPOUSAL PROTECTION UNDER DE-11
FINED CONTRIBUTION PLANS. 12
(a) A
MENDMENT OF EMPLOYEERETIREMENTIN-13
COMESECURITYACT OF1974.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Part 2 of subtitle B of title 15
I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act 16
of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1051 et seq.) is amended by in-17
serting after section 205 the following new section: 18
‘‘SEC. 205A. ADDITIONAL SPOUSAL CONSENT REQUIRE-19
MENTS. 20
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Each individual account plan to 21
which section 205 does not apply shall provide that, except 22
as provided in subsections (c) and (d), no distribution may 23
be made under the plan unless the spousal consent re-24
quirements of subsection (e) are met. 25
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‘‘(b) COORDINATIONWITHSECTION205.—Nothing 1
in this section shall be construed to exempt an individual 2
account plan from the requirements of section 205 with 3
respect to any participant. 4
‘‘(c) E
XCEPTIONS FOR CERTAINDISTRIBUTIONS.— 5
Subsection (a) shall not apply to— 6
‘‘(1) any distribution that is— 7
‘‘(A) a minimum required distribution de-8
scribed in section 4974(b) of the Internal Rev-9
enue Code of 1986; 10
‘‘(B) permitted under section 203(e)(1) to 11
be made without the consent of the participant; 12
or 13
‘‘(C) in an amount that is less than 25 14
percent of the account balance, but not more 15
than once per account; 16
‘‘(2) any distribution in the form of a qualified 17
joint and survivor annuity (as defined in section 18
205(d)(1)), a qualified optional survivor annuity (as 19
defined in section 205(d)(2)), a qualified preretire-20
ment survivor annuity (as defined in section 205(e)), 21
or a series of substantially equal periodic payments 22
(not less frequently than annually) made for the 23
joint lives (or life expectancies) of the participant 24
and the participant’s spouse; or 25
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‘‘(3) in the case of a participant who does not 1
elect a form of benefit described in paragraph (2) 2
under the plan or who is participating in a plan that 3
does not provide such a form of benefit, any dis-4
tribution of the participant’s entire nonforfeitable 5
accrued benefit if 50 percent of such accrued benefit 6
is transferred to an individual retirement plan (as 7
defined in section 7701(a)(37) of the Internal Rev-8
enue Code of 1986) of the spouse of the participant. 9
A transfer described in paragraph (3) to an individual re-10
tirement plan shall be treated in the same manner as a 11
transfer under section 408(d)(6) of the Internal Revenue 12
Code of 1986. 13
‘‘(d) E
XCEPTIONS FOR CERTAINROLLOVERCON-14
TRIBUTIONS.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to any dis-15
tribution, involving a participant who has a spouse, that 16
is an eligible rollover distribution (as defined in section 17
402(f)(2)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) made 18
in the form of a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer within 19
the meaning of section 401(a)(31) of the Internal Revenue 20
Code of 1986— 21
‘‘(1) to a plan to which this section or section 22
205 applies; or 23
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‘‘(2) to an individual retirement plan (as de-1
fined in section 7701(a)(37) of the Internal Revenue 2
Code of 1986) if— 3
‘‘(A) the beneficiary of such plan is the 4
spouse of the participant, or the spousal con-5
sent requirements of subsection (e) are met 6
with respect to any designation of 1 or more 7
other beneficiaries; and 8
‘‘(B) under the terms of the individual re-9
tirement plan, the beneficiary of such plan 10
(whether the spouse or other beneficiary des-11
ignated under paragraph (1)) may not be 12
changed unless— 13
‘‘(i) the spousal consent requirements 14
of subsection (e) are met with respect to 15
any such change, or 16
‘‘(ii) the spousal consent under sub-17
paragraph (A) to the designation of a ben-18
eficiary other than the spouse expressly 19
permits such designation to be changed 20
without the further consent of the spouse. 21
‘‘(e) S
POUSALCONSENTREQUIREMENTS.— 22
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of this sec-23
tion, except as provided in paragraph (2), the spous-24
al consent requirements of this subsection are met 25
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with respect to any distribution or any designation 1
or change of beneficiary if— 2
‘‘(A) the plan provides to each participant, 3
within a reasonable period of time before such 4
distribution or designation or change of bene-5
ficiary is made and consistent with such regula-6
tions as the Secretary of the Treasury may pre-7
scribe, a written explanation of the rights of the 8
participant and the participant’s spouse under 9
this section; 10
‘‘(B) the spouse of the participant consents 11
in writing to the distribution or designation or 12
change of beneficiary; 13
‘‘(C) in the case of a distribution, the writ-14
ten consent under subparagraph (B) is made 15
during the consent period; and 16
‘‘(D) the written consent under subpara-17
graph (B)— 18
‘‘(i) acknowledges the effect of such 19
distribution or designation or change of 20
beneficiary; and 21
‘‘(ii) is witnessed by a plan represent-22
ative or a notary public. 23
‘‘(2) E
XCEPTIONS UNDER SECTION 205 TO 24
APPLY.—The requirements of paragraph (1) (other 25
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than subparagraph (A) thereof) shall not apply with 1
respect to any distribution or designation or change 2
of beneficiary if a participant establishes to the sat-3
isfaction of the plan administrator that— 4
‘‘(A) there is no spouse; 5
‘‘(B) the participant and the participant’s 6
spouse have not been married for at least 1 7
year as of the date of the distribution or des-8
ignation or change of beneficiary; or 9
‘‘(C) such consent cannot be obtained be-10
cause— 11
‘‘(i) the spouse cannot be located; or 12
‘‘(ii) of such other circumstances as 13
the Secretary of the Treasury, in consulta-14
tion with the Secretary of Labor, may by 15
regulations prescribe. 16
‘‘(3) C
ONSENT LIMITED TO SPOUSE AND 17
EVENT.—Any written consent by a spouse under 18
paragraph (1), or the establishment by a participant 19
that an exception under paragraph (2) (other than 20
subparagraph (A) thereof) applies with respect to a 21
spouse, shall be effective only with respect to that 22
spouse and to the distribution or designation or 23
change of beneficiary to which it relates. 24
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‘‘(4) CONSENT PERIOD.—For purposes of this 1
subsection, the term ‘consent period’ means, with re-2
spect to any distribution— 3
‘‘(A) the 90-day period immediately pre-4
ceding the date of such distribution; or 5
‘‘(B) such other period as the Secretary of 6
the Treasury may provide. 7
‘‘(f) D
ISCHARGE OFPLANFROMLIABILITY.—Rules 8
similar to the rules of section 205(c)(6) shall apply for 9
purposes of this section.’’. 10
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sec-11
tions of part 2 of subtitle B of title I of the Em-12
ployee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 is 13
amended by inserting after the item relating to sec-14
tion 205 the following new item: 15
‘‘Sec. 205A. Additional spousal consent requirements.’’.
(3) RIGHT OF ACTION.—Section 502(a) of the 16
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 17
(29 U.S.C. 1132) is amended— 18
(A) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of para-19
graph (10); 20
(B) by striking the period at the end of 21
paragraph (11) and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 22
(C) by adding at the end the following new 23
paragraph: 24
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‘‘(12) by an individual for appropriate relief in 1
the case of a violation of the individual’s rights 2
under section 205A.’’. 3
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT TO INTERNALREV-4
ENUECODE OF1986.—Section 401(a) of the Internal 5
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting after para-6
graph (17) the following new paragraph: 7
‘‘(18) A
DDITIONAL SPOUSAL CONSENT RE -8
QUIREMENTS.— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of a de-10
fined contribution plan to which paragraph (11) 11
does not apply, except as provided in sub-12
sections (c) and (d), a trust forming part of 13
such plan shall not constitute a qualified trust 14
under this section unless no distribution may be 15
made under the plan unless the spousal consent 16
requirements of subparagraph (E) are met. 17
‘‘(B) C
OORDINATION WITH PARAGRAPH 18
(11).—Nothing in this paragraph shall be con-19
strued to exempt a defined contribution plan 20
from the requirements of paragraph (11) with 21
respect to any participant. 22
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTIONS FOR CERTAIN DISTRIBU -23
TIONS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to— 24
‘‘(i) any distribution that is— 25
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‘‘(I) a minimum required dis-1
tribution described in section 4974(b), 2
‘‘(II) permitted under section 3
411(a)(11) to be made without the 4
consent of the participant, or 5
‘‘(III) in an amount that is less 6
than 25 percent of the account bal-7
ance, 8
‘‘(ii) any distribution in the form of a 9
qualified joint and survivor annuity (as de-10
fined in section 417(b)), a qualified op-11
tional survivor annuity (as defined in sec-12
tion 417(g)), a qualified preretirement sur-13
vivor annuity (as defined in section 14
417(c)), or a series of substantially equal 15
periodic payments (not less frequently than 16
annually) made for the joint lives (or life 17
expectancies) of the participant and the 18
participant’s spouse, or 19
‘‘(iii) in the case of a participant who 20
does not elect a form of benefit described 21
in clause (ii) under the plan or who is par-22
ticipating in a plan that does not provide 23
such a form of benefit, any distribution of 24
the participant’s entire nonforfeitable ac-25
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crued benefit if 50 percent of such accrued 1
benefit is transferred to an individual re-2
tirement plan of the spouse of the partici-3
pant. 4
A transfer described in clause (iii) to an indi-5
vidual retirement plan shall be treated in the 6
same manner as a transfer under section 7
408(d)(6). 8
‘‘(D) E
XCEPTIONS FOR CERTAIN ROLL -9
OVER CONTRIBUTIONS .—Subparagraph (A) 10
shall not apply to any distribution, involving a 11
participant who has a spouse, that is an eligible 12
rollover distribution (as defined in section 13
402(f)(2)(A)) made in the form of a direct 14
trustee-to-trustee transfer within the meaning 15
of paragraph (31)— 16
‘‘(i) to a plan to which this paragraph 17
or paragraph (11) applies, or 18
‘‘(ii) to an individual retirement plan 19
if— 20
‘‘(I) the beneficiary of such plan 21
is the spouse of the participant, or the 22
spousal consent requirements of sub-23
paragraph (E) are met with respect to 24
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any designation of 1 or more other 1
beneficiaries, and 2
‘‘(II) under the terms of the indi-3
vidual retirement plan, the beneficiary 4
of such plan (whether the spouse or 5
other beneficiary designated under 6
subclause (I)) may not be changed un-7
less— 8
‘‘(aa) the spousal consent 9
requirements of subparagraph 10
(E) are met with respect to any 11
such change, or 12
‘‘(bb) the spousal consent 13
under subclause (I) to the des-14
ignation of a beneficiary other 15
than the spouse expressly permits 16
such designation to be changed 17
without the further consent of 18
the spouse. 19
‘‘(E) S
POUSAL CONSENT REQUIRE -20
MENTS.— 21
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—For purposes of 22
this paragraph, except as provided in 23
clause (ii), the spousal consent require-24
ments of this subparagraph are met with 25
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respect to any distribution or any designa-1
tion or change of beneficiary if— 2
‘‘(I) the plan provides to each 3
participant, within a reasonable period 4
of time before such distribution or 5
designation or change of beneficiary is 6
made and consistent with such regula-7
tions as the Secretary may prescribe, 8
a written explanation of the rights of 9
the participant and the participant’s 10
spouse under this paragraph, 11
‘‘(II) the spouse of the partici-12
pant consents in writing to the dis-13
tribution or designation or change of 14
beneficiary, 15
‘‘(III) in the case of a distribu-16
tion, the written consent under sub-17
clause (II) is made during the consent 18
period, and 19
‘‘(IV) the written consent under 20
subclause (II)— 21
‘‘(aa) acknowledges the ef-22
fect of such distribution or des-23
ignation or change of beneficiary, 24
and 25
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‘‘(bb) is witnessed by a plan 1
representative or a notary public. 2
‘‘(ii) E
XCEPTIONS UNDER SECTION 3
417 TO APPLY .—The requirements of 4
clause (i) (other than subclause (I) there-5
of) shall not apply with respect to any dis-6
tribution or designation or change of bene-7
ficiary if a participant establishes to the 8
satisfaction of the plan administrator 9
that— 10
‘‘(I) there is no spouse, 11
‘‘(II) the participant and the par-12
ticipant’s spouse have not been mar-13
ried for at least 1 year as of the date 14
of the distribution or designation or 15
change of beneficiary, or 16
‘‘(III) such consent cannot be ob-17
tained because— 18
‘‘(aa) the spouse cannot be 19
located, or 20
‘‘(bb) of such other cir-21
cumstances as the Secretary, in 22
consultation with the Secretary 23
of Labor, may by regulations pre-24
scribe. 25
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‘‘(iii) CONSENT LIMITED TO SPOUSE 1
AND EVENT.—Any written consent by a 2
spouse under clause (i), or the establish-3
ment by a participant that an exception 4
under clause (ii) (other than subclause (I) 5
thereof) applies with respect to a spouse, 6
shall be effective only with respect to that 7
spouse and to the distribution or designa-8
tion or change of beneficiary to which it 9
relates. 10
‘‘(iv) C
ONSENT PERIOD .—For pur-11
poses of this subparagraph, the term ‘con-12
sent period’ means, with respect to any 13
distribution— 14
‘‘(I) the 90-day period imme-15
diately preceding the date of such dis-16
tribution, or 17
‘‘(II) such other period as the 18
Secretary may provide.’’. 19
SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATES. 20
(a) I
NCREASINGSPOUSALPROTECTIONUNDERDE-21
FINEDCONTRIBUTIONPLANS.—Except as provided in 22
subsection (b), the amendments made by section 3 shall 23
apply to distributions and rollover contributions made in 24
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plan years beginning after the date that is 1 year after 1
the date of the enactment of this Act. 2
(b) P
ROVISIONSRELATING TO PLANAMEND-3
MENTS.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—If this paragraph applies to 5
any plan or contract amendment, such plan or con-6
tract shall be treated as being operated in accord-7
ance with the terms of the plan during the period 8
described in paragraph (2)(C). 9
(2) A
MENDMENTS TO WHICH PARAGRAPH (1) 10
APPLIES.— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) shall 12
apply to any amendment to any plan or annuity 13
contract which is made— 14
(i) pursuant to the amendments made 15
by section 3 or pursuant to any regulation 16
issued under section 205A of the Employee 17
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 18
or section 401(a)(18) of the Internal Rev-19
enue Code of 1986, as added by section 3; 20
and 21
(ii) on or before the last day of the 22
first plan year beginning on or after the 23
date that is 3 years after the date de-24
scribed in subsection (a). 25
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In the case of a governmental plan (as defined 1
in section 414(d) of the Internal Revenue Code 2
of 1986), this subparagraph shall be applied by 3
substituting ‘‘5 years’’ for ‘‘3 years’’ in clause 4
(ii). 5
(B) C
ONDITIONS.—Subparagraph (A) shall 6
not apply to any amendment unless— 7
(i) the plan or contract is operated as 8
if such plan or contract amendment were 9
in effect for the period described in sub-10
paragraph (C); and 11
(ii) such plan or contract amendment 12
applies retroactively for such period. 13
(C) P
ERIOD DESCRIBED.—The period de-14
scribed in this subparagraph is the period— 15
(i) beginning on the effective date 16
specified by the plan; and 17
(ii) ending on the date described in 18
subparagraph (A)(ii) (or, if earlier, the 19
date the plan or contract amendment is 20
adopted). 21
SEC. 5. ACCESS TO INDEPENDENT CONSUMER INFORMA-22
TION AND UNDERSTANDING. 23
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 24
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(1) the term ‘‘consumer’’ means any person 1
who purchases or acquires any goods, products, serv-2
ices, or credit related to the retirement or later life 3
economic security of the consumer; and 4
(2) the term ‘‘financial product or service pro-5
vider’’ means any person who engages in the busi-6
ness of providing any retirement financial product or 7
service to any consumer. 8
(b) R
EQUIREDLINK TOCONSUMERAWARENESSIN-9
FORMATION.—In any offer for the sale, exchange, or other 10
transfer of a retirement financial product or service to a 11
consumer carried out by a financial product or service pro-12
vider, such provider shall provide, in a manner consistent 13
with subsection (c), an easily accessible link to the website 14
of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (referred 15
to in this section as the ‘‘CFPB’’) at which the consumer 16
may access information, literature, guides, programs, 17
tools, strategies, or any other resource produced by the 18
CFPB or other Federal agency relating to retirement 19
planning or later life economic security. 20
(c) D
ETERMINATION.—In order to ensure that the re-21
quirement under subsection (b) is effectively carried out, 22
the Financial Literacy and Education Commission shall 23
determine and publish on its website the appropriate link 24
to the CFPB’s website for access to the CFPB’s and other 25
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Federal agencies’ consumer education materials, the pre-1
ferred format of such link, and any accompanying descrip-2
tion of the CFPB and the consumer education materials 3
associated with such link. 4
SEC. 6. GRANTS TO PROMOTE FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR 5
WOMEN. 6
(a) A
UTHORIZATION OF GRANTAWARDS.—The Sec-7
retary of Labor, acting through the Director of the Wom-8
en’s Bureau, shall award grants on a competitive basis to 9
eligible entities to enable such entities to improve the fi-10
nancial literacy of women who are working age or in re-11
tirement, to increase the likelihood of the women realizing 12
a secure and stable retirement. 13
(b) D
EFINITION OFELIGIBLEENTITY.—In this sec-14
tion, the term ‘‘eligible entity’’ means a community-based 15
organization with proven experience and expertise in serv-16
ing working-age or retired women. 17
(c) A
PPLICATION.—An eligible entity that desires to 18
receive a grant under this section shall submit an applica-19
tion to the Secretary of Labor at such time, in such man-20
ner, and accompanied by such information as such Sec-21
retary may require. 22
(d) M
INIMUMGRANTAMOUNT.—The Secretary of 23
Labor shall award grants under this section in amounts 24
of not less than $250,000. 25
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•S 988 IS
(e) USE OFFUNDS.—An eligible entity that receives 1
a grant under this section shall use the grant funds to 2
develop and implement financial literacy education, and 3
related activities including outreach, awareness building, 4
and counseling to increase women’s knowledge of retire-5
ment planning and consumer, economic, and personal fi-6
nancial concepts. 7
(f) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 8
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 9
$100,000,000 for fiscal year 2026 and each succeeding 10
fiscal year. 11
SEC. 7. GRANTS TO ASSIST LOW-INCOME WOMEN AND SUR-12
VIVORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN OBTAIN-13
ING QUALIFIED DOMESTIC RELATIONS OR-14
DERS. 15
(a) A
UTHORIZATION OF GRANTAWARDS.—The Sec-16
retary of Labor, acting through the Director of the Wom-17
en’s Bureau and in conjunction with the Assistant Sec-18
retary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, 19
shall award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible enti-20
ties to enable such entities to assist low-income women 21
and survivors of domestic violence in obtaining qualified 22
domestic relations orders and ensuring that those women 23
actually obtain the benefits to which they are entitled 24
through those orders. 25
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(b) DEFINITION OFELIGIBLEENTITY.—In this sec-1
tion, the term ‘‘eligible entity’’ means a community-based 2
organization with proven experience and expertise in serv-3
ing women and the financial and retirement needs of 4
women. 5
(c) A
PPLICATION.—An eligible entity that desires to 6
receive a grant under this section shall submit an applica-7
tion to the Secretary of Labor at such time, in such man-8
ner, and accompanied by such information as the Sec-9
retary of Labor may require. 10
(d) M
INIMUMGRANTAMOUNT.—The Secretary of 11
Labor shall award grants under this section in amounts 12
of not less than $250,000. 13
(e) U
SE OFFUNDS.—An eligible entity that receives 14
a grant under this section shall use the grant funds to 15
develop programs to offer help to low-income women or 16
survivors of domestic violence who need assistance in pre-17
paring, obtaining, and effectuating a qualified domestic re-18
lations order. 19
(f) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 20
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 21
$100,000,000 for fiscal year 2026 and each succeeding 22
fiscal year. 23
Æ
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