[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 25, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H6563-H6564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STAND UP FOR AMERICA'S PENSIONERS

  (Mr. TIERNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TIERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I thought we might take a minute this 
morning to talk about the fact that while our economy struggles and 
while families across America watch helplessly as their retirement 
savings dwindle away as a result of corporate greed and mismanagement, 
while health care costs soar to ever-higher rates, and while 
prescription drug prices rise at 5 times the rate of inflation, the 
leadership in this House can still be counted on to protect the 
interests of corporate moguls and wealthy special interests at the 
expense of hard-working American families.
  A case in point. With the startling news that 401(k) and other 
defined contribution plans lost $210 billion last year, and IRAs lost 
$230 billion, the majority in this House still thinks it perfectly all 
right for companies to provide conflicted investment advice to their 
employees, advice from analysts who have a stake in the very stocks 
that they are touting, analysts who receive financial benefits from 
promoting certain stocks, even if they know they are of questionable 
value.
  Some of us tried to do something about that and correct the inequity

[[Page H6564]]

when we considered the so-called pension reform bill last spring. My 
amendment would have provided truly unconflicted advice to investors, 
and that is the direction we ought to go. The bills that are in front 
of the House later on today, Mr. Speaker, do not move in that 
direction, and we need to stand up for the American people whose 
investments are dwindling and do the right thing.

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