[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H5764]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WOMEN'S PENSION EQUITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from Oregon [Ms. Furse] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FURSE. Mr. Speaker, life history is important. The history of a 
Member of Congress can give insight into a problem in our society. This 
is just such an occasion.
  I think I can safely say that my work history has been very similar 
to that of the majority of American women. I was a mother. I was a 
homemaker. I worked in my community for community change. I was a 
volunteer. I worked in a nonprofit. When I was divorced, my lawyer did 
not do what he should have done, which was make sure that the pension 
of my spouse was something that I would have been provided.
  I continued to work in nonprofits and community organizations. It was 
not until I came to Congress that I ever got a job where there was a 
pension attached, and even that I cannot vest in. Well, Mr. Speaker, 
that is the situation for a majority of women, elderly women like 
myself in this country.
  I am honored to be able to do something to fix this situation. Mr. 
Speaker, together with my colleague, the gentlewoman from New York, 
Mrs. Nita Lowey, I have introduced the Women's Pension Equity Act. Some 
60 percent of seniors are women, but they make up 75 percent of the 
elderly poor. Women are far more likely than men to live out their 
older lives in poverty, making those older years anything but golden. 
In my own State, I am sad to say that only 37 percent of the women in 
Oregon participate in a pension plan.
  We need to make steps to fix this, take steps, that is what the 
Women's Pension Equity Act does.
  Women in America need our help. They live longer than men and are 
five times as likely to be widowed than widowers over the age of 40. In 
the last 20 years, the number of women over the age of 45 who are 
divorced has risen dramatically. And 20 percent of older women have no 
other source of income than Social Security. It is a sad fact, Mr. 
Speaker, but elderly women are twice as likely as men to be poor. So 
that is why we need these pension reforms.
  According to the AARP, only 23 percent of divorced women over the age 
62 had pension plans of any type. My life history is just like that. 
Nearly 50 percent of married private pension recipients have a plan 
that will not continue to pay benefits in the event of a spouse's 
death.
  There is a crack in our safety net, and it is women who are falling 
through it. The Women's Pension Equity Act will correct these 
inequities. My bill is modeled after the bill introduced by Senator 
Carol Moseley-Braun. It will reform pension law to help protect senior 
women. First it will make much needed improvements in private pension 
law to help protect women in divorce proceedings and to simplify 
spousal consent rules for survivor annuities.
  Mr. Speaker, it will make important changes to improve pension 
coverage for widows or divorced widows under the Federal Civil Service 
Retirement System as well as the military retirement system. And 
lastly, the legislation would improve coverage for divorced women under 
the Railroad Retirement Board.
  Mr. Speaker, we must reverse the status quo, which dictates that, if 
you are old and a woman, you are poor. This legislation is about 
reforming the pension system to protect the economic security of 
elderly women. Women have worked hard their entire lives, serving their 
families, their careers, their communities, and they deserve nothing 
less than the best. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation 
and work for its swift passage in the House.

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