Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak about a broken agreement and a missed opportunity to help families save for their children's education.

In April, the Ways and Means Committee marked up this bill in a very bipartisan manner. We heard ideas from both sides of the aisle to help Americans save for the future and their retirements.

Like all good negotiations, there was give and take. No side got everything they wanted, but we reached an agreement where we could pass the bill unanimously. In short, this is how the American people expect their government to work.

Madam Speaker, unfortunately, it became clear that this agreement was not in good faith. At the last minute, Democrats decided to undermine our bipartisan work on the Ways and Means Committee and stripped out an issue many Republicans feel strongly about: helping families afford everyday K-12 education costs.

Expanding 529 education savings accounts to cover common K-12 expenses would help all families save for their children's education and their unique needs, no matter where they attend school, whether it is public school, private school, religious school, homeschool, and so on.

Madam Speaker, I want to know, what is so controversial about helping families afford educational therapies for students with disabilities? What is so controversial about making it easier to pay for tutoring, books, and standardized testing fees?

This is a missed opportunity to help families afford education costs no matter where they send their children to school, and it is a shame that partisan politics is getting in the way of helping families everywhere.

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