Spending Bill Vote, Likely With Secure Act 2.0, Expected Before Christmas

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Monday afternoon that an omnibus spending bill must be wrapped up by the end of the week, and industry officials are optimistic that Secure Act 2.0 provisions will be included.

“Much of my focus today, tonight, and tomorrow will remain on getting the omnibus done,” Schumer said Monday afternoon on the Senate floor. “Despite having a little more work to do, the omnibus continues heading in the right direction. We must wrap the whole process up and vote on final passage before the end of the week. It won’t be easy, but we are working hard so we can get it done before the end of the week and be with our families for Christmas.”

Once the omnibus comes before the Senate, Schumer continued, “I’m confident that both sides will find things in it they can enthusiastically support.”

Schumer conceded, however, that the omnibus is “not going to be everything anybody wants, that’s for sure, but it’s far preferable to a CR, which will leave the country high and dry, and it’s certainly preferable to a government shutdown.”

There “is a very good chance that [Secure Act] 2.0 will hitch a ride on the omnibus,” J. Mark Iwry, the head of national retirement policy during the Obama-Biden administration who’s now a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told ThinkAdvisor Monday in an email.