Legislative Conference Education
PRELIMINARY AGENDA
As of 12/05/23
7:00 AM – 6:00 PM Registration
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM Joint Communications Summit and Legislative Conference Networking Reception
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23
7:00 AM – 6:00 PM Registration
7:00 AM – 8:00 AM Breakfast
8:00 AM – 12:00 PM General Session I
Welcoming Remarks
Speaker: Hank Kim
The 2024 Presidential, Congressional, and State Elections: What’s at Stake?
The stakes for the 2024 elections seemingly can’t be higher. Will the Biden Administration get another four-year mandate? Will the majorities in Congress change? What will be the margins the status quo or the new majorities enjoy? These and other burning questions will be discussed and answered as our Washington Insiders rely on their years of experience covering and observing Washington for answers.
Speakers: Jonathan Capehart, Associate Editor for the Washington Post, and Matt Lewis, Senior Columnist for the Daily Beast
Verifying Deaths: What are the Options and Alternatives?
With the recent high-profile data breaches, there’s been renewed interest among public plans to find alternatives to verify participant deaths that are reliable and limit plan data exposures. Learn about our exploration into potential alternatives like the Social Security Administration’s “full” master death files, U.S. Treasury’s Do Not Pay system, and NAPHSIS Electronic Verification of Vital Events (EVVE) software.
Speakers: Tony Roda, Williams & Jensen, and Hank Kim, NCPERS
Congressional Activities Impacting Public Pensions
This much-anticipated annual session is where you get to hear from and ask questions of staff counsels from Congressional Committees that have jurisdiction and oversight authority over U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). As state & local entities, Treasury, IRS, and the Committees that oversee them are important to public plans because they are effectively the only federal oversight exposures we have to the federal government.
Speakers: Payson Peabody, Majority Tax Counsel, House Ways & Means Committee; Kara Getz, Minority Tax Counsel, House Ways & Means Committee; Jamie Cummins, Minority Tax Counsel, Senate Finance Committee; and Drew Crouch, Majority Tax Counsel, Senate Finance Committee (Invited)
The 2024 Agenda of the SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate
The Office of the Investor Advocate was established at the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2014. As institutional investors, public pensions have great interest in what this office does as it analyzes the potential impact on investors of proposed regulatory changes, identifies problems that investors have with investment products and financial service providers, and recommends changes to statutes and regulations for the benefit of investors. Find out what the Office of the Investor Advocate is prioritizing in 2024.
Speaker: Cristina Begoña Martin Firvida, Director, Office of the Investor Advocate
NCPERS Federal Priorities
The legislative and regulatory priorities for NCPERS are described in detail in the annual Legislative Issues Book. This session provides an overview of all the issues NCPERS will be monitoring in 2024 and highlights a select number of high priority items. This session will prepare you for successful Congressional visits on Policy Day.
Speaker: Tony Roda, Williams & Jensen
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Networking Lunch
1:30 PM – 5:00 PM General Session II
NCPERS 2023 Policymaker of the Year Award
NCPERS honors policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels who have made meaningful impact to public pensions or retirement policy writ large. This year we honor the work of a man who has impacted both. The Honorable Michael Frerichs, Illinois State Treasurer, through his position as Vice-Chair on the Illinois State Investment Board and administering the Illinois Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program is truly deserving of this recognition.
Speaker: The Honorable Michael Frerichs, Illinois State Treasurer (Invited)
Secure Choice: State-Sponsored Savings Programs for the Private Sector
This panel session will provide an update on three state-sponsored retirement savings programs for the private sector and offer outlooks on the future of this sector. Since the publication of the seminal Secure Choice Pension whitepaper in 2011, there are now six states with retirement savings programs with combined AUM of $1 billion dollars and a total of 19 states that have enacted Secure Choice programs.
Speakers: CalSavers (Invited); Illinois Secure Choice (Invited); RetirePath Virginia (Invited)
The Case for Bringing Back Pensions: A Closer Look at Alaska
Alaska has endured substantial staffing shortages since 2006 when the state voted to close its pension for public employees. To make matters worse, Alaska is a non-Social Security state meaning the state’s 401k-style defined contribution replacement plan must replace Social Security benefits too. These shortcomings are high hurdles to attracting and retaining qualified firefighters, teachers, police officers, and other vital public servants. Panelists will provide a look at the prospects of Alaska reinstating its pension plan in the 2024 legislative session and share practical tactics and long-term strategic planning that may help you preserve and defend your plans.
Speakers: The Alaska Public Pension Coalition (Invited)
State Tax Policies and Their Impact on Funding Priorities
Too often public pensions have solely focused on the appropriations side of state and local budgets. We have largely ignored the revenue raising component, which funds appropriations. This session will examine state tax policies and their impact on the ability of states to appropriate money to fund their priorities, including fully paying the actuarially determined employer contributions (ADECs). The speakers will provide best practices and lessons learned to bring back to your state and locality as you consider whether to participate in the revenue raising debate.
Speakers: Good Jobs First and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Invited)
State Proposals Impacting State & Local Pensions
This session will provide an overview of proposals in state capitals that impact public pensions. Led by our strategic partners, the National Public Pension Coalition (NPPC), you will hear about the states they are monitoring and lobbying activities by state coalitions to promote and protect public pensions. NCPERS – along with 5 public-sector unions – has funded NPPC since its inception in 2007.
Speaker: Kendal Killian, NPPC
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM Networking Reception
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM Policy Day Breakfast & Pre-Meeting
9:30 AM – 5:00 PM Policy Day Lounge/Debriefing Room Open
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Meetings with Congress (Scheduled by NCPERS)
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Policy Day Lunch
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM Policy Day Closing Happy Hour