[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16289]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      RAILROAD RETIREMENT BENEFITS

  Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I am pleased to have introduced the 
Railroad Retirement Technical Improvement Act that would ensure that 
the Department of the Treasury continues to distribute retirement 
benefits rather than a nongovernmental disbursing agent. This 
legislation is similar to a bill that was introduced in the House of 
Representatives by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman 
Don Young of Alaska. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, 
which will continue to allow our Nation's retired railroad employees to 
securely receive the benefits for which they have worked so hard.
  The Railroad Retirement and Survivors' Improvement Act of 2001 calls 
for a nongovernmental financial institution to replace the Treasury 
Department as the disbursing agent of retirement benefits. While I have 
consistently supported greater efficiency in government by allowing the 
private sector a greater role in providing some services, I believe 
that further analysis of this issue has shown that the Treasury 
Department is the most efficient and secure conduit to distribute these 
important benefits.
  While the Treasury Department has a long track record of disbursing 
checks on a massive scale, very few private disbursing agents would 
have the ability to handle this load at the same costs incurred by the 
Treasury. It has been estimated that the average cost of using a 
nongovernmental benefit disbursing agent would total $2.9 million each 
year. In contrast, having the Treasury maintain its role as disbursing 
agent would only cost $800,000 annually, a $2.1 million annual savings.
  In addition to the fiscal concerns that have arisen regarding 
transferring disbursing responsibilities for benefits, identity theft 
is a looming threat because of the need to transfer personal 
information of private individuals from the Treasury Department to the 
private sector. The specter of this threat is growing, and I do not 
believe our Nation's retirees should be concerned with who may have 
access to their personal information.
  A benefit in addition to cost savings and security is that unlike a 
private vendor, the Treasury Department has the ability to use debt 
collection tools such as withholding tax refunds that are not available 
to the private sector. The Treasury Department's ability to make 
collections on overpaid benefits is easier, cheaper, and more efficient 
than having a private sector agent make the same collections.
  The advantages of securing benefits for our retired railroad workers 
and saving taxpayer dollars are obvious. The maintenance of these 
benefits under the realm of the Treasury Department is a cost-efficient 
and secure means of distributing benefits, and I urge my colleagues to 
support this legislation.

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