[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 119 (Thursday, September 21, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1803-E1804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          MILITARY PERSONNEL FINANCIAL SERVICES PROTECTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 20, 2006

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, as a supporter of ensuring our service 
personnel have access to a wide range of financial products I am 
concerned with the provision of the Military Personnel Financial 
Services Protection Act, S. 418, enacting a complete prohibition on so-
called contractual or periodic payment mutual funds, which, according 
to testimony received by the House Committee on Financial Services, are 
sold voluntarily with full disclosure to officers at individual 
meetings held off base.
  This is the first time in recent memory that this committee has ever 
proposed banning a product that is fully permissible under current law 
and that--again according to testimony received by the committee--is 
used by thousands of senior military officials to facilitate their 
financial security. Specifically, we were told that the clients of 
First Command Financial Planning, the Texas-based company principally 
involved in this market, has invested

[[Page E1804]]

$734.4 million aggregate in these accounts in 2004. The sales charge on 
that amount was about $44 million, or about six percent. What is the 
basis for outlawing a product that over half a million individuals, 
including half the flag officers on active duty at the time, had freely 
chosen? Do we really believe that individuals charged with the 
deployment of billions of dollars of military equipment, are not 
sophisticated enough to make their own financial decisions?
  When the Congress last looked at this product in 1970, we recognized 
periodic payment mutual funds are a valuable means to help encourage 
savings by people who do not have large amounts of discretionary 
income. I have seen no evidence in the record indicating that the 
judgment then was incorrect. In fact, testimony received by the 
Financial Services Committee indicates that these periodic payment 
mutual funds are working for those military members choosing to utilize 
them.
  Before voting on S. 418, Congress should consider whether it is in 
the best interests of our armed services to substitute our judgment for 
theirs by banning a financial product that the armed services deem 
well-suited for their financial security.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce the Enhanced Options for Rural 
Health Care Act. This legislation allows critical access hospitals to 
use beds designated for critical access use, but currently not being 
used for that purpose, for assisted living services financed by private 
payments.
  This bill will help improve the financial status of small rural 
hospitals and extend the health care options available to people living 
in rural areas without increasing federal expenditures. Currently, fear 
that rural hospitals will lose critical access status if beds 
designated for critical access are used for another purpose is causing 
rural hospitals to allow beds not needed for a critical access purpose 
to remain unused. This deprives rural hospitals of a much-needed 
revenue stream and deprives residents of rural areas of access to 
needed health care services.
  My colleagues may be interested to know that the idea for this bill 
comes from Marcella Henke, an administrator of Jackson County Hospital, 
a critical access hospital in my congressional district. Ms. Henke 
conceived of this idea as a way to meet the increasing demand for 
assisted living services in rural areas and provide hospitals with a 
profitable way to use beds not being used for critical access purposes. 
I urge my colleagues to embrace this practical way of strengthening 
rural health care without increasing federal expenditures by 
cosponsoring the Enhanced Options for Rural Health Care Act.

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