Employee Benefits Security Administration chief Phyllis Borzi criticized Congress Tuesday for foot-dragging on mandating auto enrollment for small business defined contribution plans.

She praised the states for taking the lead.

“The states have been looking at Congress’s inaction and they are getting impatient,” Borzi said at the annual convention of the American Society for Pension Professionals & Actuaries.

The EBSA chief said her unit will meet President Obama’s end-year deadline to propose rules that would eliminate the fear many states have of creating the plans since the programs could be invalidated by the courts. Generally, federal measures can overrule state rules for private retirement plans.

She noted there have been nearly three dozen U.S. Supreme Court decisions on this preemption of the federal government over the states in retirement, but the boundaries remain unclear.

“ERISA preemption has been a barrier to states,” Borzi said.

On the proposed fiduciary rule for retirement plan advisors, Borzi said there have been lots of constructive suggestions for changes in the best interest contract exemption and other areas in the hundreds of thousands of comments the Department of Labor has received.

The rule is expected to be adopted before Obama leaves office in January 2017.

When asked if she would be around to lead enrollment of the rule at DOL once it is finalized, Borzi said her term expires when his does.

ASPPA Executive Director Brian Graff predicted a Republican successor to Obama would propose “substantive changes” to the rule.

During the session, Treasury Department retirement policy chief Mark Iwry said a nationwide rollout of the myRA individual retirement account—accounts designed for new savers—will be coming soon. It is currently operating as a pilot program.

The department is adding a feature to myRA that will allow participants to contribute to their plans with money from their bank accounts in addition to automatic payroll deductions, he said..

Iwry said he is heartened many insurers are planning to sell annuities that would start payouts to beneficiaries in their 80s to prevent them from running out of money as they go deep into old age.

In his first week on the job, Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. Director Tom Reeder told the gathering he is devoting a lot of time to the new law permitting multiemployer union pension plans to reduce benefits when they are in danger of becoming insolvent.

“Multiemployer plans come to the point where we have to do what we can where there is not enough money to pay all the promised benefits. We have to do everything we can in our power to ensure the promises are kept,” he said.