[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 69 (Thursday, May 13, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H3161-H3162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF COMPREHENSIVE RETIREMENT SECURITY AND PENSION REFORM 
                              ACT OF 1999

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Portman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to discuss an issue of 
great importance to so many Americans, and that is financial security 
in retirement. It is an important issue that has made the headlines a 
lot lately because of the retirement squeeze that our country faces.
  We have more and more people who are going to be retiring, the baby 
boom generation, 76 million Americans, including myself, beginning to 
retire in 10 short years. We have people living much longer in this 
country, which is a good thing. But it is a huge demographic shift, 
this combination of this big generation retiring and people living 
longer, that is putting a lot of pressure on our retirement systems.
  The Social Security system is not ready for it. Most of us know that 
now. But also our private retirement system, the employer-sponsored 
pension system, is not ready for it. Social Security needs to be a top 
priority of this Congress and this President.
  I would love to see Social Security reform this year. I am pushing 
hard for it. But Social Security is only one component of a secure 
retirement for Americans. It was never intended to meet all the 
financial needs of retirement and for most Americans, of course, it 
does not, as this chart shows.
  In fact, retirement security has often been called the three-legged 
stool, because people depend on three aspects of retirement savings. 
One is Social Security, one is personal savings and another one, a very 
important one, is employer-provided pensions.

                              {time}  1700

  The fourth part of this pie, of course, is people's earnings after 
they retire from a full-time job, but it is employer provided pensions 
that 19 percent of people's retirement that I would currently like to 
focus on today.
  This is 401(k) plans. This is profit sharing plans. This is all of 
the plans that people who have a comfortable retirement have to 
supplement their Social Security.
  It is interesting when we look at pensions as compared to Social 
Security benefits. It is already a very important part of the 
retirement for so many Americans. In fact, last year more money was 
paid out through employer provided pensions than was paid out under 
Social Security.
  But all is not well with our pension system, not well at all in fact. 
Fewer than half of Americans who are working today have pensions. This 
is a major problem.
  Madam Speaker, in 1983 about 48 percent of Americans had pensions. 
One would think that by 1993 we would have improved that and said it 
was only about 50 percent. It remains there. Sixty million American 
workers do not have access to one of the most important means of a 
comfortable, secure retirement, and that is pension savings. Half of 
all workers do not have it, and actually it is worse than that among 
those employees of small businesses. Among our smaller businesses where 
so many of our jobs are being created in our economy today fewer than 
half of the workers have pensions. In fact when we combine those 
companies between 1 and 10 employees and those between 10 and 25 
employees, the average for those smaller companies, and again this the 
companies that are creating most of the new jobs out there, is that 
only 19 percent of them offer any kind of pension program at all today. 
So those employees with smaller businesses even have less of an 
opportunity to be able to get the kind of retirement security that they 
deserve.
  Why is that? Madam Speaker, it is because setting up these plans, 
these pension plans, 401(k)s and so on, has become so costly and so 
burdensome, maintaining them has become so costly and there is so much 
liability that small businesses cannot afford to do it. Not enough 
workers have pension coverage at a time when our overall savings rate 
in this country also is terribly low. In fact, it is at historically 
low levels, and this is a real problem. Economists will tell us, 
whether they are liberal, centrist or conservative economists, we have 
got to increase the savings rate in this country if we want to continue 
to have the kind of economic prosperity we have enjoyed over the last 
several years.
  We have a plan to solve these problems. It is called the 
Comprehensive Retirement Security and Pension Reform Act of 1999. I 
have introduced it this year with my colleague and friend the gentleman 
from Maryland (Mr. Cardin). It is designed to dramatically increase 
personal savings rate and overall retirement security for millions of 
Americans by expanding the availability of pensions. It knocks down 
barriers to savings by raising limits and allowing workers to set more 
aside tax free for their retirement. It also untangles the complex

[[Page H3162]]

and irrational rules and cuts through the red tape that burdens 
retirement plans and their participants, and it creates new incentives 
for small businesses to establish these pension plans. It has a 
wonderful catch-up provision where older workers who are coming back 
into the work force can put even more aside for their pensions. This is 
particularly important for working moms who have been out of the work 
force but coming back after age 50 and want the opportunity to get more 
in the nest egg for their retirement. It responds to the needs of the 
increasingly mobile work force we have in this country by allowing 
people to vest faster in their pension plans and allowing portability 
so you can move your pension plan from job to job, which is so 
important to many, Americans. We believe that changing jobs should not 
mean that you get short changed on your retirement savings and your 
sense of security in retirement.
  If enacted, these changes will expand savings, and they will make the 
difference between mere subsistence in retirement and retirement 
security for millions of workers nationwide.
  I urge my colleagues to cosponsor the legislation, H.R. 1102.

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