Rep. Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican, launched the Financial Freedom Act into the United States House of Representatives on Friday to forestall the U.S. Department of Labor from limiting the forms of investments that may be included in Americans’ self-directed 401(okay) retirement plans. The bill is the companion to Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s May 5 Senate bill.
The Financial Freedom Act was launched as a response to a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) compliance report dated March 10 that raised objections to the inclusion of cryptocurrencies in 401(okay) retirement plans. That report warned the division’s Employee Benefits Security Administration “expects to conduct an investigative program aimed at plans that offer participant investments in cryptocurrencies and related products, and to take appropriate action to protect the interests of plan participants and beneficiaries with respect to these investments.”
The DOL report elicited a response from monetary providers large Fidelity Investments objecting to what it noticed as unclear language and positions that strayed from the intent of the legislation that created the 401(okay) program. It requested the DOL make clear the report or withdraw it. Two weeks later, Fidelity joined quite a few smaller monetary providers companies in providing Bitcoin to 401(okay) plan holders.
Related: Sen. Warren asks Fidelity to handle the dangers to place Bitcoin in 401(okay)s
Tuberville replied in an editorial on CNBC earlier than the introduction of his bill, “Whether or not you believe in the long-term economic prospects of cryptocurrency, the choice of what you invest your retirement savings in should be yours — not that of the government.”
In a tweeted press launch saying his bill’s introduction, Donalds said that the DOL was proscribing traders’ decisions for his or her retirement accounts, and characterised the Biden administration as mounting “a far-reaching and sweeping endeavor to centralize power in Washington” by means of the DOL report.
Today, I launched the House companion of the Financial Freedom Act of 2022. This bill prohibits Biden’s @USDOL from proscribing the kind of investments that self-directed 401(okay) account traders can select. The nice @SenTuberville is championing this bill in the U.S. Senate. pic.twitter.com/c5zOJUEzCN
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) May 20, 2022