WASHINGTON -- The Senate has introduced the Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, a new bill aimed at protecting the savings of America's seniors invested in individual retirement plans with a one-year moratorium on the required minimum distributions.

Current law requires that seniors who reach the age of 70 1/2 must begin to take a required minimum distribution from their individual retirement accounts. With the state of the financial markets, such mandatory cash-outs could result in a loss of thousands of dollars for up to 400,000 retirees in Maryland who are over age 70 1/2 , according to Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), one of the sponsors of the bill (S. 3361).

The proposed legislation includes changes to pension requirements for businesses, as well as provisions included in the Pension Protection Technical Correction Act of 2008, originally passed by the Senate in December 2007 and the House in March and July of this year. The bipartisan package also extends for one year business-tax relief that was included in the first economic stimulus package, and allows companies to write off a greater percentage of their investments in business assets to free up cash for payroll and other expenses.