[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 386 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 386

 To establish a grant program to enhance the financial and retirement 
literacy of mid-life and older Americans and to reduce financial abuse 
        and fraud among such Americans, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 13, 2003

Mr. Corzine (for himself, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Sarbanes, and Mr. Akaka) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
          Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To establish a grant program to enhance the financial and retirement 
literacy of mid-life and older Americans and to reduce financial abuse 
        and fraud among such Americans, 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 ``Education for Retirement Security 
Act of 2003''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Improving financial literacy is a critical and complex 
        task for Americans of all ages.
            (2) Low levels of savings and high levels of personal and 
        real estate debt are serious problems for many households 
        nearing retirement.
            (3) Only 53 percent of working Americans have any form of 
        pension coverage. Three out of four women aged 65 or over 
        receive no income from employer-provided pensions.
            (4) The more limited timeframe that mid-life and older 
        individuals and families have to assess the realities of their 
        individual circumstances, to recover from counter-productive 
        choices and decisionmaking processes, and to benefit from more 
        informed financial practices, has immediate impact and near 
        term consequences for Americans nearing or of retirement age.
            (5) Research indicates that there are now 4 basic sources 
        of retirement income security. Those sources are social 
        security benefits, pensions and savings, healthcare insurance 
        coverage, and, for an increasing number of older individuals, 
        necessary earnings from working during one's ``retirement'' 
        years.
            (6) The $5,000,000,000,000 loss in stock market equity 
        values since 2000 has had a significantly negative effect on 
        mid-life and older individuals and on their pension plans and 
        retirement accounts, affecting both individuals with plans to 
        retire and those who are already in retirement.
            (7) Although today's older individuals are generally 
        thought to be doing well, nearly \1/4\ (24 percent) of such 
        individuals had annual incomes of less than 14,000 (or 150 
        percent of the Federal poverty line) between 1998 and 2000.
            (8) Over the next 30 years, the number of older individuals 
        in the United States is expected to double, from 35,000,000 to 
        nearly 75,000,000, and long-term care costs are expected to 
        skyrocket.
            (9) Financial exploitation is the largest single category 
        of abuse against older individuals and this population 
        comprises more than \1/2\ of all telemarketing victims in the 
        United States.
            (10) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Identity Theft Data 
        Clearinghouse has reported that incidents of identity theft 
        targeting individuals over the age of 60 increased from 1,821 
        victims in 2000 to 5,802 victims in 2001, a threefold increase.

SEC. 3. GRANT PROGRAM TO ENHANCE FINANCIAL AND RETIREMENT LITERACY AND 
              REDUCE FINANCIAL ABUSE AND FRAUD AMONG MID-LIFE AND OLDER 
              AMERICANS.

    (a) Authority.--The Secretary is authorized to award grants to 
eligible entities to provide financial education programs to mid-life 
and older individuals who reside in local communities in order to--
            (1) enhance financial and retirement knowledge among such 
        individuals; and
            (2) reduce financial abuse and fraud, including 
        telemarketing, mortgage, and pension fraud, among such 
        individuals.
    (b) Eligible Entities.--An entity is eligible to receive a grant 
under this section if such entity is--
            (1) a State agency or area agency on aging; or
            (2) a nonprofit organization with a proven record of 
        providing--
                    (A) services to mid-life and older individuals;
                    (B) consumer awareness programs; or
                    (C) supportive services to low-income families.
    (c) Application.--An eligible entity desiring a grant under this 
section shall submit an application to the Secretary in such form and 
containing such information as the Secretary may require, including a 
plan for continuing the programs provided with grant funds under this 
section after the grant expires.
    (d) Limitation on Administrative Costs.--A recipient of a grant 
under this section may not use more than 4 percent of the total amount 
of the grant in each fiscal year for the administrative costs of 
carrying out the programs provided with grant funds under this section.
    (e) Evaluation and Report.--
            (1) Establishment of performance measures.--The Secretary 
        shall develop measures to evaluate the programs provided with 
        grant funds under this section.
            (2) Evaluation according to performance measures.--Applying 
        the performance measures developed under paragraph (1), the 
        Secretary shall evaluate the programs provided with grant funds 
        under this section in order to--
                    (A) judge the performance and effectiveness of such 
                programs;
                    (B) identify which programs represent the best 
                practices of entities developing such programs for mid-
                life and older individuals; and
                    (C) identify which programs may be replicated.
            (3) Annual reports.--For each fiscal year in which a grant 
        is awarded under this section, the Secretary shall submit a 
        report to Congress containing a description of the status of 
        the grant program under this section, a description of the 
        programs provided with grant funds under this section, and the 
        results of the evaluation of such programs under paragraph (2).

SEC. 4. NATIONAL TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.

    (a) Authority.--The Secretary is authorized to award a grant to 1 
or more eligible entities to--
            (1) create and make available instructional materials and 
        information that promote financial education; and
            (2) provide training and other related assistance regarding 
        the establishment of financial education programs to eligible 
        entities awarded a grant under section 3.
    (b) Eligible Entities.--An entity is eligible to receive a grant 
under this section if such entity is a national nonprofit organization 
with substantial experience in the field of financial education.
    (c) Application.--An eligible entity desiring a grant under this 
section shall submit an application to the Secretary in such form and 
containing such information as the Secretary may require.
    (d) Basis and Term.--The Secretary shall award a grant under this 
section on a competitive, merit basis for a term of 5 years.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Financial education.--The term ``financial education'' 
        means education that promotes an understanding of consumer, 
        economic, and personal finance concepts, including saving for 
        retirement, long-term care, and estate planning and education 
        on predatory lending and financial abuse schemes.
            (2) Mid-life individual.--The term ``mid-life individual'' 
        means an individual aged 45 to 64 years.
            (3) Older individual.--The term ``older individual'' means 
        an individual aged 65 or older.
            (4) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Health and Human Services.

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    (a) Authorization.--There are authorized to be appropriated to 
carry out this Act, $100,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2004 
through 2008.
    (b) Limitation on Funds for Evaluation and Report.--The Secretary 
may not use more than $200,000 of the amounts appropriated under 
subsection (a) for each fiscal year to carry out section 3(e).
    (c) Limitation on Funds for Training and Technical Assistance.--The 
Secretary may not use less than 5 percent or more than 10 percent of 
amounts appropriated under subsection (a) for each fiscal year to carry 
out section 4.
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