A bill to establish a process by which participants of employee welfare plans select guidelines to be used by the plan fiduciary for voting proxies on securities held in investment portfolios under the plan, and for other purposes.
Encouraging More Proxy voting by Organized Workers, Employees, and Retirement Savers Act or the EMPOWERS Act
This bill modifies the requirements for single-employer retirement plans with respect to the fiduciaries and proxy voting procedures for such plans.
Specifically, it requires the assets of such plans to be held in trust by a joint board of trustees that represents the interests of the employer and the interests of the plan participants and their beneficiaries on an equal basis.
Additionally, the trustees of each plan must undergo training and establish proxy voting guidelines for the plan. In exercising a plan's proxy voting rights, a fiduciary may consider (1) the investment objectives of the plan participants and their beneficiaries, and (2) certain effects of negative externalities generated by portfolio companies.
Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Introduced in Senate
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
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