Approximately one-third of
private-sector employees in the United States lack access to
retirement savings plans through their employers. To fill this gap,
several states (or their political subdivisions) are establishing
or considering programs that will encourage employees to save for
their retirement, including through automatic enrollment individual
retirement accounts and other approaches (collectively referred to
here as Auto-IRAs). Under an Auto-IRA program, employee
contributions are deposited into an IRA and invested in accordance
with the design of the Auto-IRA program and the wishes of the
participant. In order to assist states in offering risk-averse
savers a principal-protected investment, the Department of the
Treasury, Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service) will offer retirement
savings bonds to certain state Auto-IRA retirement savings
programs. To help the Fiscal Service determine whether it should
offer or continue to offer the bonds for a given state Auto-IRA
program, that program must provide documentation to Fiscal Service
annually, in a form and manner acceptable to Fiscal Service,
addressing topics such as administration; account monitoring;
ability to transfer; withdrawals; consumer protection; consumer
education; costs of administration borne by consumers; oversight;
pooling; and any proposed use of the bond as a default
investment.
The Department of the
Treasury, Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service) respectfully requests
emergency processing and approval of the collection of information
contained in the final rule to amend Regulations Governing
Retirement Savings Bonds. Section 347.30 of the regulation was
added to impose an annual reporting requirement for State Auto-IRA
programs which are issued retirement savings bonds. In December
2016, two states requested that Treasury verify whether the
retirement savings bond will be available in their state retirement
savings programs. One of those states is preparing to launch its
auto-IRA program in the next several months and needs confirmation
from Fiscal Service on what information is required as soon as
possible. Fiscal Service cannot reasonably comply with the normal
clearance procedures under 5 C.F.R. Part 1320 without causing
delays and additional burden on these states.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.