Pension Stability Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2598 To require the payment of user fees by qualified professional asset managers seeking an individual exemption from certain requirements. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OCTOBER 15, 2019 Ms. BALDWIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To require the payment of user fees by qualified professional asset managers seeking an individual exemption from certain requirements. 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 ‘‘Pension Stability Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. USER FEES. 5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 months after the 6 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor (re- 7 ferred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall promul- 8 gate regulations establishing user fees applicable to large 9 regulated banks, savings and loan associations, insurance 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:51 Oct 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2598.IS S2598 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 2598 IS companies, and federally registered investment advisors 1 (referred to in this section as ‘‘entities’’) that— 2 (1) meet the definition of a ‘‘qualified profes- 3 sional asset manager’’, as set forth by the Secretary; 4 and 5 (2) apply for an individual exemption, pursuant 6 to the Prohibited Transaction Exemption 84–14, 7 from the prohibitions of section 406 of the Employee 8 Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 9 1106) and the sanctions resulting from the applica- 10 tion of section 4975 of the Internal Revenue Code 11 of 1986, despite the inability of such entities to com- 12 ply with section I(g) of the Prohibited Transaction 13 Exemption 84–14. 14 (b) USER FEE AMOUNTS.— 15 (1) GENERAL FEES.—In establishing user fees 16 under subsection (a), the Secretary shall ensure that 17 such fees— 18 (A) are not less than $1,000,000 per appli- 19 cation for an individual exemption under section 20 I(g) of the Prohibited Transaction Exemption 21 84–14; and 22 (B) are scaled higher than the base fee es- 23 tablished under subparagraph (A), based on the 24 severity of the crime related to such application. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:06 Oct 19, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2598.IS S2598 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 2598 IS (2) REPEAT OFFENDERS.—In the case of an 1 entity that previously filed an application for an in- 2 dividual exemption under section I(g) of the Prohib- 3 ited Transaction Exemption 84–14 (including a suc- 4 cessor company or a company that has subsequently 5 acquired a previous offender), the applicable user fee 6 under paragraph (1) shall be multiplied by the num- 7 ber of such prior applications. 8 (c) TRANSFER OF FEES COLLECTED.— 9 (1) IN GENERAL.—Amounts collected in user 10 fees under this section shall be transferred to the 11 first and the second Pension Benefit Guaranty funds 12 described in section 4005(a) of the Employee Retire- 13 ment Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 14 1305(a)) and shall be allocated— 15 (A) to the fund used with respect to basic 16 benefits guaranteed under section 4022A of 17 such Act (29 U.S.C. 1322a), until such time 18 that the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corpora- 19 tion’s annual projections report indicates that 20 such fund and the fund used with respect to 21 basic benefits guaranteed under section 4022 of 22 such Act (29 U.S.C. 1322) have substantially 23 similar future financial conditions and substan- 24 tially similar risks of insolvency; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:51 Oct 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2598.IS S2598 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 2598 IS (B) thereafter, to each of the funds de- 1 scribed in subparagraph (A) in equal amounts, 2 subject to paragraph (2). 3 (2) ADJUSTMENTS TO ALLOCATIONS.—If, after 4 amounts collected in user fees under this section 5 have been allocated in accordance with paragraph 6 (1)(B), the Director of the Pension Benefit Guar- 7 anty Corporation determines that the future finan- 8 cial conditions or risks of insolvency of the funds 9 used with respect to basic benefits guaranteed under 10 each of sections 4022A and 4022 of the Employee 11 Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 are no 12 longer substantially similar as described in para- 13 graph (1)(A), the Director, in consultation with the 14 board of directors of the Pension Benefit Guaranty 15 Corporation, shall determine an appropriate alloca- 16 tion of such amounts between such funds. 17 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:51 Oct 16, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2598.IS S2598 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS