US Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, last week introduced an amendment to the pending congressional appropriations package that would establish a $20 million grant program through the Department of Labor to experiment with the concept of healthcare, retirement and other portable benefits for the contingent workforce, Richard Meneghello of law firm Fisher Phillips wrote in JD Supra [1]. Warner and US Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-WA, last year introduced similar legislation [2] to test and evaluate portable benefit models designed for the independent workforce, but it is stalled in committee.
Meanwhile, employers are poised to offer benefits [3] to their independent contractors, but are waiting for Congress to give the go-ahead, according to an article from Bloomberg BNA.