"Student loans are out of control in this country," Crawford said. "This pervasive issue affects constituents in every one of our districts. However, I can't support large giveaway proposals that unload the full burden of student loan debt from the minority of adults who attended college to the majority who did not."

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Adding an improved student loan repayment feature to a retirement plan could help workers tackle their student loan debt and avoid punishing interest payments before they focus on long-term financial matters, like retirement, Crawford said.

Federal law already lets 401(k) savers use money from the vested portion of their 401(k) plan assets to pay off student loan balances.

Crawford has not yet posted draft 401(edu) plan legislation or a 401(edu) plan outline, and Crawford did not talk in detail at the hearing about how he wants to change or add to the current rules..

He did say that 401(edu) contributions would start off going straight toward paying down student loan principal.

"A 401(edu) also retains its pre-tax deduction status, but since the payments are disbursed immediately, there is not a future tax burden on withdrawn funds, as there would be for a 401(k)," Crawford said.

Family leave: Two other lawmakers who spoke at the Ways and Means hearing — Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., and Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa. — called for extending and possibly expanding the paid family leave tax credit provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

The paid family leave tax credit can cover the cost of up to 25% of 12 weeks of paid leave, or up to three weeks of paid leave.

"As a mother of two daughters, I was thankful my employer offered me paid family leave," Bice said at the hearing. "We need to incentivize employers to offer paid family leave, not mandate it.

Bice is part of a family leave working group.

The working group came up with the idea of encouraging states to work with insurers to develop affordable paid family leave insurance programs.

The working group is also working on an idea to create a group that would help employers and workers cope with the current conflicts between different states' family leave rules.

Medically tailored meals: A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants Medicare to test the idea of making home delivery of medically tailored meals a benefit for patients who do not need home care.

The proposal calls for Medicare to provide home-delivered meals designed by registered dietitian nutritionists for people who suffer from conditions such as diabetes and congestive heart failure.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., McGovern told the committee he represents a bipartisan group of proposal supporters that includes Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Pa.; Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.; Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y.; and Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., are supporting a similar proposal in the Senate.

McGovern cited estimates from the Food is Medicine Coalition that providing medically tailored meals for all people who could use them could prevent 1.5 million hospitalizations in the first year and lead to $13 billion in net savings. The coalition says meal delivery agencies can provide home-delivered, medically tailored meals for a patient for about $4,838 per year, or less than the full price of a year's supply of Wegovy weight-loss injections, and that access to home-delivered medically tailored meals cut health costs for people included in one study by 31%.

Private health insurers like Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare are already offering medically tailored program for enrollees in Medicaid plans and Medicare Advantage plans, in connection with "social determinants of care" efforts.

The McGovern meal program proposal would have no direct effect on employer-sponsored healh plans, but the Purchaser Business Group on Health has suggested that some large employers are starting to think about social -determinants-of-care benefits when they design their own plans.