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This has been an extremely busy season for the NAGDCA Executive Board, as well as the organization as whole. Due to all the action going on within the retirement arena, we have been working to communicate NAGDCA's positions on legislative issues with officials in Washington, while keeping members abreast of the latest news from Capitol Hill. The NAGDCA Board traveled to Washington DC for the annual Hill visits at the beginning of March, where we met with several congressional staff members and representatives of the Department of Treasury. In addition, we were honored to meet personally with Representatives Sam Johnson (R-TX) and Allyson Schwartz (D-PA). You will recognize their names as the sponsors of last year's first House Resolution declaring National Save for Retirement Week. This was a first, since my tenure on the Board, for the NAGDCA board to meet with the elected officials personally, and it speaks very highly of our organization's strong reputation at the national level.

During our time in Washington, we developed the following list of legislative priorities for the organization, and used these as our talking points during our meetings (to view the full letter of legislative priorities, click here).

• Maintain Important Distinctions Between Governmental Defined Contribution Plans: The continued growth in assets in governmental defined contribution plans is evidence of the value of these supplemental retirement vehicles. Therefore, NAGDCA supports the continued existence of substantive distinctions for §457(b) plans and governmental qualified (or 401(a)) plans. NAGDCA is concerned that efforts to further simplify or consolidate defined contribution plans may result in the loss of benefits to public employees and we have identified a number of practical concerns related to those efforts.
• Parallel Savings Opportunities: Enhancing retirement benefits and incentives for savings to all governmental and private sector workers.
• Maintain Exemption From Early Withdrawal Penalty: Under current law, government §457(b) plan employees are not subject to the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty. This recognizes the fact that many public employees, particularly police officers, firefighters, correction officers and other public safety officers, have access to early retirement options. In addition, many employees currently rely upon these early withdrawals to pursue retirement or phased-retirement options, including using these dollars to supplement health care costs during early retirement. Introduction of a Roth 457 option would be beneficial to lower income and younger employees as well as new hires allows for consolidation of retirement assets and lower fees for administration.
• Maximize Unused Flexible Account Dollars: NAGDCA supports allowing state and local government employees to roll up to $500 dollars in unused flexible spending account dollars into their defined contribution plans (457, 401(k) or 403(b) plans) without having the defined contribution plans be considered a part of the flexible spending account plan.
• Enactment of a Roth 457 Option: 401(k) and 403(b) plans are permitted to offer a Roth 401(k) or a Roth 403(b) to allow participants to save for retirement with both pre- and post-tax contributions. It is important that public-employer sponsored 457 plans be permitted to provide this same range of retirement savings options to is participants. Roth 457 provisions are currently contained in H.R. 2419, The Food and Energy Security Act of 2007, and we urge its inclusion in final legislation.
• Permit Non-Spousal Beneficiaries to Roll Assets to 457 and 403(b) Plans: The PPA permitted non-spousal beneficiaries to roll assets they obtain as a beneficiary to an IRA. EGTRRA acknowledged that the consolidation of retirement assets is valuable to those with multiple retirement savings accounts. It would be similarly valuable to non-spousal beneficiaries to consolidate their beneficiary assets to their 457(b) or 403(b) accounts.
• Extend the "National Save for Retirement Week" Resolution: We appreciate the unanimous congressional support for the National Save for Retirement Week Resolution, first passed in the Senate in 2006 and passed by both the House and the Senate in 2007. We urge Congress to reintroduce and pass this resolution in the second session of the 110th Congress. National Save for Retirement Week is a solid example of the partnership we have developed over the years by giving national attention to this issue. It has enabled state and local government employers across the country to create a heightened level of awareness regarding the importance of taking personal responsibility for contributing to saving for retirement.
• Increase Eligibility for Low Income Savers Tax Credit: The addition of a provision for indexing of the income limits on the Savers Tax Credit is valuable and would allows more low-income individuals to take opportunity to save.
• Fee Disclosure: State and local government plans are open and transparent. Fee disclosure helps plan sponsors evaluate fairness and encourages competition in the industry which ultimately helps the participant. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress on this issue.

Also, NAGDCA has several activities on the horizon:

• The 2008 Industry Roundtable (May 15-16, Washington, DC)
• Speaker selection for the 2008 Annual Conference (Begins in April)
• Working with congressional leaders to introduce the Resolution for NS4RW in 2008
• NAGDCAST #3: National Save for Retirement Week (Summer, TBD)