[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2899 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

  1st Session
                                H. R. 2899


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 24, 2001

     Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
 To authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to issue Freedom Bonds in 
   response to the September 11, 2001, hijackings and attacks on the 
      Pentagon and the World Trade Center, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Freedom Bonds Act of 2001''.

SEC. 2. ISSUANCE OF FREEDOM BONDS.

    Section 3105 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(f) Freedom Bonds.--The Secretary may designate one or more 
series of bonds or certificates (or any portion thereof) issued under 
this section as `Freedom Bonds' in response to the acts of terrorism 
perpetrated against the United States on September 11, 2001.''.

SEC. 3. STUDY OF PUBLIC DEBT MANAGEMENT.

    (a) In General.--The Commissioner of the Public Debt shall conduct 
a study of the administrative costs of the Bureau of the Public Debt 
associated with managing the public debt, including, with respect to 
the various types of debt instruments, interest rate costs and 
personnel and processing costs related to issuing, redeeming, and 
otherwise administering the instruments on both an annual basis and on 
a transaction basis. The study should include--
            (1) cost comparisons between high-amount, lower-volume 
        instruments (such as large Treasury bills and notes with 
        varying maturities) and low-amount, high-volume instruments 
        such as savings bonds;
            (2) an analysis of the impact of the savings bond program 
        on the Federal Government; and
            (3) an analysis of the impact of the savings bond program 
        on savings opportunities for the public.
    (b) Report.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Commissioner of the Public Debt shall submit 
a report of such study to the Committee on Appropriations and the 
Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives.

            Passed the House of Representatives October 23, 2001.

            Attest:

                                                 JEFF TRANDAHL,

                                                                 Clerk.