National Senior Investor Initiative Act of 2023

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GOTTHEIMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bipartisan bill, the Senior Security Act, to help protect vulnerable seniors who are being targeted by fraudsters who seek to take financial advantage of them.

I first thank my colleague, Republican Congresswoman Ann Wagner, for her friendship and her leadership. I am very grateful for her continued fight to have the backs of our seniors.

Mr. Speaker, I also thank Senators Sinema and Collins, who have introduced the companion legislation to the Senior Security Act in the United States Senate.

This legislation builds on Congresswoman Wagner's and my previous work this Congress when we advanced the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act that would give asset managers more tools to prevent suspected financial exploitation of seniors and vulnerable adults.

Since I took office, I have been committed to helping seniors save their hard-earned money for retirement, help cut their taxes, afford prescription drugs, and protect Social Security and Medicare so that, at the end of the day, they can afford to stay where I live in northern New Jersey and enjoy their lives with their friends, children, and grandchildren.

Unfortunately, far too many of our seniors have had their hard-earned retirement savings stolen right out from under them when a scammer calls or shows up at their door. Millions of seniors across the country, including my own late mother, have been the victims of financial scams, and far too many have been cheated out of their retirement savings.

It is appalling. It is offensive. It is simply unacceptable. These senior scams cost older Americans more than $36 billion a year, often hitting their retirement nest eggs, not to mention the pain and anxiety you can't put a dollar figure on. Plus, senior scams have more than doubled since 2020.

We are here today to do something about it by advancing the Senior Security Act to help protect American seniors from these shameless criminals.

This bipartisan bill would create a senior investor task force at the Securities and Exchange Commission that will exclusively focus on how seniors are being targeted by fraudsters who seek to take financial advantage of them.

Every 2 years, the task force will be required to submit a report to Congress outlining trends and innovations, like robocalls and voice spoofing, that are impacting senior investors, helping us stay ahead of changes in financial scams as they arise.

Everyone should know they are incredibly sophisticated now. Literally through AI and other spoofing, it sounds like someone's grandchild calling when they scam them.

The task force will give law enforcement stronger tools and information. The task force will coordinate with other Federal regulators, State regulators, and law enforcement to ensure we are doing as much as we can at every level of government to stop hucksters from scamming our seniors. The task force will be a cop on the beat to make sure we keep up with the changes in financial scams and, again, stay ahead of new issues.

Our seniors have given us so much. We should always have their backs, look out for them, and help protect them from predators and innovative scammers who want to take advantage of them.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense, bipartisan legislation, the Senior Security Act. I thank my colleagues and Congresswoman Wagner, again, for her friendship and her leadership.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source