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Pension Protection Act of 2005

Date: Dec. 15, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Senior Citizens Entitlements and the Safety Net


PENSION PROTECTION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - December 15, 2005)

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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, as the consumer listens to this debate, one of the things I believe that they want to understand is that the advocates of this legislation, they are the ones that, just a year ago, were trying to privatize the Social Security system. They wanted to privatize the Social Security system. That should not be dismissed. So this bill is now shuttled to the floor, barely a word of consideration in the Ways and Means Committee, and the Republicans on the Rules Committee would not grant us the opportunity to offer an alternative.

Pensions, like Social Security, should be sacred between the employer and the employee. There are few things that matter more than long-term security and a guaranteed pension.

Now, let me give you the schedule of the Ways and Means Committee. We found days to discuss a free trade agreement with Bahrain, days to hear testimony about Bahrain, a country with 700,000 people. And then we took months and months and months, as they attempted to privatize Social Security. We spent a disproportionate amount of time, after the American people said, and the Wall Street Journal poll today, by the way, indicates quite clearly how they felt about their privatization plan of Social Security. Boy, is that clear. I will bet you on the other side everybody has read that poll by now. That was a terrible idea, and this is a terrible idea.

So where do we find ourselves? This legislation will do more harm than it will do good. The Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets, a group that represents chief investment officers from the larger corporations in the country, recently conducted their own survey and concluded that if this were to pass, 60 percent of those employers would either freeze or terminate their pension plans. Everybody knows the most robust debate in America next year is going to take place over retirement security. Reject this legislation.

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http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?r109:./temp/~r109A4S65W

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