[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Page 13865]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 601--DESIGNATING OCTOBER 19 THROUGH OCTOBER 25, 2008, 
                AS ``NATIONAL SAVE FOR RETIREMENT WEEK''

  Mr. SMITH (for himself and Mr. Conrad) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                               S. Res 601

       Whereas Americans are living longer and the cost of 
     retirement continues to rise, in part because the number of 
     employers providing retiree health coverage continues to 
     decline, and retiree health care costs continue to increase 
     at a rapid pace;
       Whereas Social Security remains the bedrock of retirement 
     income for the great majority of the people of the United 
     States, but was never intended by Congress to be the sole 
     source of retirement income for families;
       Whereas recent data from the Employee Benefit Research 
     Institute indicates that, in the United States, less than \2/
     3\ of workers or their spouses are currently saving for 
     retirement, and that the actual amount of retirement savings 
     of workers lags far behind the amount that will be needed to 
     adequately fund their retirement years;
       Whereas many workers may not be aware of their options for 
     saving for retirement or may not have focused on the 
     importance of, and need for, saving for their own retirement;
       Whereas many employees have available to them through their 
     employers access to defined benefit and defined contribution 
     plans to assist them in preparing for retirement, yet many of 
     them may not be taking advantage of employer-sponsored 
     defined contribution plans at all or to the full extent 
     allowed by the plans as prescribed by Federal law; and
       Whereas all workers, including public- and private-sector 
     employees, employees of tax-exempt organizations, and self-
     employed individuals, can benefit from increased awareness of 
     the need to save adequate funds for retirement and the 
     availability of preferred savings vehicles to assist them in 
     saving for retirement: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) designates October 19 through October 25, 2008, as 
     ``National Save for Retirement Week'';
       (2) supports the goals and ideals of National Save for 
     Retirement Week;
       (3) supports the need to raise public awareness of 
     efficiently utilizing substantial tax revenues that currently 
     subsidize retirement savings, revenues in excess of 
     $170,000,000,000 for the fiscal year 2007 budget;
       (4) supports the need to raise public awareness of the 
     importance of saving adequately for retirement and the 
     availability of tax-preferred employer-sponsored retirement 
     savings vehicles; and
       (5) calls on States, localities, schools, universities, 
     nonprofit organizations, businesses, other entities, and the 
     people of the United States to observe this week with 
     appropriate programs and activities with the goal of 
     increasing retirement savings for all the people of the 
     United States.

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