[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 5 (Wednesday, January 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S586-S587]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RETIREMENT SECURITY FOR AMERICANS

  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, this morning, I appreciate the opportunity 
to speak on behalf of an important set of provisions in the Democratic 
program of putting families first--in this case, the provision that 
gives families some additional security for their pension and 
retirement. There is no generation in American history which needs to 
plan more carefully for their retirement years than that which is 
currently in America's work force. Two fundamental things have 
occurred.
  First, people are living longer. One of the great successes of our 
generation has been its capacity to extend life and extend the quality 
of life. Today a person who retires can look forward to almost 18 years 
of quality of life after they leave the workplace.

  A second thing that has occurred is tremendous mobility within the 
work force. Our grandparents had an expectation when they completed 
their formal education of finding a place of employment and in many 
instances staying in that one employment for the rest of their work 
careers. Today people are much more mobile and change their jobs at 
frequent intervals.
  The chart behind me indicates what has happened just in the last 
decade in terms of job mobility. To focus on one group of Americans, 
American males between the ages of 35 and 44, in 1987 the average 
American male in that middle-age active employment group had been with 
their current employer for 7.6 years. Less than 10 years later, the 
average has dropped to 6 years. The same is true of virtually every 
other category of males and females from the beginning worker to the 
worker who is on the edge of retirement.
  Workers can no longer expect to spend a career with a single 
employer. The work force patterns of the last hundred years have 
evolved as industries, technologies, and the American economy has 
evolved. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, if you are an 
average employee between the ages of 18 and 29 you have held 7.6 jobs 
in that brief work career. On the occasion of a 30th birthday, 40 
percent of Americans have been in their current jobs less than 2 years, 
making it easier for working Americans to successfully save for their 
retirement in this context of extended age after retirement, and the 
mobility of the work force is a matter of tremendous national 
importance. It is obviously important to the individual and their 
families to be well prepared for those retirement years, but also it 
has important implications to the communities in which they will live 
and to the Nation as a whole.
  A retiree who is financially well prepared will not risk being a 
financial burden to their children, or to State, local, or Federal 
Government social service providers. They will be able to strengthen 
the economy in their local communities with home purchases and a 
variety of leisure and recreation activities. They will be able to use 
their free time for volunteer efforts to help the next generation with 
things like the President spoke of in his inaugural address, helping 
young people to learn to read, building homes for Habitat for Humanity, 
all the ways in which that discretionary time has served the community 
and the Nation.
  Financial security retirement is valuable to the retiree. It is 
valuable to the Nation.
  Our Nation's businesses offer a variety of benefits to their workers 
to give them a secure retirement to help them start saving for their 
postemployment life. These range from the traditional defined benefit 
programs to profit-sharing to 401(k) retirement accounts. I am going to 
focus on that third area in which employers have assisted their 
employees in preparing for retirement; that is, through incentives and 
encouragement to persons to voluntarily save for their own retirement, 
and how can we make that a more expansive and a more stable source of 
retirement income.
  Generally, the 401(k) retirement benefits become available to 
employees after they have worked 5 to 7 years with a particular 
company. If an employee leaves before that time, some or all of the 
benefits which they derived can be lost. I applaud the Democratic 
leadership and specifically Senator Daschle for a legislative response 
that will greatly assist hard-working Americans in continuing their 
ability to prepare for their retirement even as they undergo these 
dramatic changes in their employment career.
  This legislation provides for more rapid vesting for the employer 
contribution to a 401(k) plan as retirement savings. 401(k) plans have 
grown tremendously over the past two decades. In 1984, there were 
17,300 qualified plans. Today there are over 140,000 such plans. 
Currently, 22 million American workers contribute part of their salary 
to a 401(k) plan to help prepare for retirement. In the aggregate, 
401(k) plans now hold $675 billion in assets for American workers.
  Employees are contributing large sums to their 401(k) in part because 
many employers match the employee contribution. But under current law, 
if an employee terminates his or her employment with a company prior to 
5 years of service, then the employee may not get any of the employer's 
contribution to the plan. In today's mobile work force, many employees 
switch jobs in less than 5 years. We should recognize this reality of 
the mobility of the work force. We should recognize that it is a 
strength of the American economy. We should mitigate the current 
practice of penalizing mobility at less than 5 years by vesting an 
employer match after 3 years. That is one of the proposals for reform 
in the 401(k) program. But faster vesting alone is not enough. We need 
to explore other proposals that will make it easier on employers to 
transfer pension funds with an employee when the worker changes jobs.
  As an example, under current law, if a new employer accepts pension 
funds that came from a new employee's previous company, a worker who 
has worked at company A, they have accumulated savings in their 401(k) 
plan and they want to carry those funds to their new employer B, the 
new employer has to make certain that pension funds are part of a plan 
that meets all the Federal requirements. Failing to do so, they can be 
subject to Internal Revenue Service penalties. Many businesses, 
particularly small businesses, would like to let employees bring 
pension funds with them, but the regulatory hassle makes it not 
worthwhile. We need to assure employers that if they allow an employee 
to roll over his or her old pension plan to carry it with them to their 
new point of employment, that the new employer will not risk IRS 
penalties.

  Mr. President, 5 million American workers participate in retirement 
savings plans and change jobs every year. Some will be completely 
vested and have a smooth transition. Some will put themselves, their 
family and their retirement security at risk by losing a portion of the 
company's matching contributions.
  Mr. President, the next chart indicates the percentage distribution 
of worker by years of tenure in their current job. For instance, for 
American workers in the 35 to 44 age group, 14.7 percent have been in 
their current employment for less than 1 year, 29 percent for less than 
4 years, which means that 29 percent of Americans within that age group 
would not be in a status in which an employer contribution to their 
retirement would be mandatory vesting. This issue of making it more 
secure for employers to be able to provide a continuation of retirement 
benefits to their new employee, to give the new employee a greater 
assurance that their contribution and the employer contribution upon 
which they counted will be there when they reach retirement, are 
critical issues to the large

[[Page S587]]

population of Americans who will increasingly be looking to their own 
efforts in order to provide for their retirement years.
  Mr. President, this planning for retirement will make a difference in 
the lives of millions of Americans today and in the future and in the 
communities in which they live. If we take steps today to secure the 
pension and retirement benefits of Americans, we will be making a 
contribution to the well-being of those families, communities, and the 
Nation.
  I commend the leadership for having brought this important issue to 
such a level of priority in this 105th Congress and urge all of my 
colleagues to give it the appropriate consideration and support for the 
security of American families.
  I thank the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Allard). Under the previous order, the 
Senator from West Virginia is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Byrd pertaining to the introduction of S. 182 are 
located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and 
Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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