[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 46 (Thursday, April 17, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page E702]]



                     INTRODUCTION OF THE SAVER ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. HARRIS W. FAWELL

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 17, 1997

  Mr. FAWELL. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to join with my colleague 
Donald Payne, the ranking Democrat on the Employer-Employee Relations 
Subcommittee, as well as 25 other Democrats and Republicans from across 
the political spectrum, in introducing bipartisan legislation 
addressing a critical national problem: the lack of individual 
retirement savings.
  America faces a ticking demographic time bomb that requires increased 
retirement savings. Today we introduce the Savings Are Vital to 
Everyone's Retirement Act of 1997, the SAVER Act, as a first step in 
defusing the retirement time bomb. The SAVER Act initiates projects to 
educate American workers about retirement savings and convenes a 
National Summit on Retirement Savings.
  Through this bill, we hope to facilitate a public-private partnership 
to educate the public on this serious and underreported national 
problem. Workers need to know the importance of saving for the future, 
and of saving as soon as possible. As a survey released this year by 
the Employee Benefit Research Institute [EBRI] reveals, there is much 
work to do. Less than a third of Americans have even tried to calculate 
how much they need to have saved by retirement. Furthermore, less than 
20 percent are very confident they will have enough money to live 
comfortably throughout their retirement. Far too few Americans--
particularly the young--have either the knowledge or the resources 
necessary to take advantage of the extensive benefits offered by our 
retirement savings system.
  We know the old adage that you feed someone for life by teaching them 
to fish. We need to apply this principle to retirement savings. The 
same EBRI survey found that while only a quarter of workers expressed 
confidence in their ability to map out a retirement savings strategy, 
an encouraging 50 percent said they would stick to a plan if they had 
one. We must find ways to get the information and skills out to workers 
to harness this latent energy.
  The SAVER Act directs the Department of Labor [DOL] to maintain an 
ongoing program of education and outreach to the public through public 
service announcements, public meetings, creation of educational 
materials, and establishment of a site on the Internet. The information 
to be disseminated will include a means for individuals to calculate 
their estimated retirement savings needs, a thorough description of the 
types of retirement savings arrangements currently available to both 
individuals and employers, and an explanation for employers, in simple 
terms, of how to establish different retirement savings arrangements 
for their workers.
  The SAVER Act also convenes a National Summit on Retirement Savings 
at the White House, cohosted by the executive and legislative branches, 
to be held by April 15, 1998, and again every 4 years thereafter. The 
National Summit would advance the public's knowledge and understanding 
of retirement savings and facilitate the development of a broad-based, 
public education program; identify the barriers which hinder workers 
from setting aside adequate savings for retirement and impede 
employers, especially small employers, from assisting workers in 
accumulating retirement savings; and develop specific recommendations 
for legislative, executive, and private sector actions to promote 
retirement savings among American workers.
  The national summit would bring together experts in the fields of 
employee benefits and retirement savings, key leaders of government, 
and interested parties from the private sector and general public. The 
delegates would be selected equally by the majority and minority 
leaders of the two Houses of Congress and would represent the diversity 
of thought in the field without regard to their political affiliation. 
The national summit would be largely funded through the existing 
educational appropriations for the DOL and by contributions from the 
private sector.
  The lack of adequate retirement savings will only become a more 
pressing problem as the baby boomers begin to retire. It does not take 
a mathematician to recognize that in the future retiring Americans will 
have to rely less on Social Security and more on pensions and other 
personal savings. But make no mistake, we have known of this problem 
for a long time. Sixteen years ago President Carter's Commission on 
Pension Policy reported that a serious crisis existed in our retirement 
income programs, and that baby boomers will place severe strains on an 
already overburdened system. It's 16 years later and the problems have 
only gotten bigger as they have come closer. The American people can 
afford to wait no longer.
  I hope that the SAVER Act can be a first step in a truly bipartisan 
effort to reverse the long course of neglect of this vital issue, and 
help American workers better prepare for a comfortable and secure 
retirement.

                          ____________________