The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“PROTECT, PRESERVE, AND STRENGTHEN MEDICARE” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H7553-H7554 on July 25, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PROTECT, PRESERVE, AND STRENGTHEN MEDICARE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Knollenberg] is recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
Mr. KNOLLENBERG. Mr. Speaker, July 30 marks the 30-year anniversary of Medicare, and while this vital program is only 30 years old, it is facing a financial crisis that threatens its longevity and the health security of 37 million seniors.
Just a few months ago, Medicare's Board of Trustees, four of whom are members of the Clinton administration, reported that Medicare part A, the hospital insurance trust fund, will be bankrupt in 7 years and unable to pay the hospital bills of our Nation's seniors.
The Republican majority in Congress obviously will not allow this to happen. We understand the importance of Medicare to retirees and stand ready to save this important program from going broke. We have been working very diligently to develop a proposal to preserve, protect, and strengthen Medicare for current and future retirees, and have already laid out six principles that will guide our efforts to reform Medicare.
Instead of acknowledging the spending crisis in Medicare as indicated in the trustees' report, and joining our efforts to save this important program, the President and his political allies have attempted to distort our principles to reform Medicare by scaring seniors with imaginary Medicare cuts. Why? Because they have no plan of their own to solve the Medicare crisis.
House Republicans are not proposing to cut Medicare. Under our plan, Medicare spending will increase each year. In fact, Medicare will still be one of the fastest-growing programs in the entire Federal Government, and spending per Medicare beneficiary will grow from $4,800 per beneficiary to $6,700 in the year 2002.
While the lack of leadership and partisan sniping on this crucial issue by the President and his allies is bad enough, House Republicans have recently discovered a stealth attack by the Clinton administration on private pensions. This is another matter.
Last year, the Department of Labor issued an interpretive bulletin that places the $3.5 trillion in private pension assets at risk of being channeled into low-return, economically targeted investments, or ETI's. ETI's are investments which are chosen for their social benefits, rather than the return they generate for pension plan participants and beneficiaries.
These politically targeted investments channel pension funds into public housing construction, community development projects, and other pork barrel programs that are more risky than traditional pension investments. Even the Clinton administration has acknowledged that ETI's are, and I quote, ``less liquid, require more expertise to evaluate, and require a longer time to generate significant investment returns.''
Nevertheless, the President's Labor Department is actively promoting these high-risk investments through a national clearinghouse at a cost of $1 million a year to American taxpayers. I guess finding the revenue for the President's social agenda is more important to the Department of Labor than protecting retirement income for millions of Americans.
Prior to the issuance of the Department of Labor's interpretive bulletin, private pension managers were required to abide by the Employment Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, fiduciary standards which forced them to focus entirely on the interest of their pension beneficiaries when investing pension assets.
Because of the Labor Department's interpretation of ERISA, pension managers can now take into consideration the benefits of an investment to third parties.
The Department of Labor's promotion of ETI's flies in the face of its responsibility as the Nation's watchdog and chief enforcer of ERISA.
Last week, the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities approved legislation introduced by Congressman Saxton to stop the Clinton pension grab. The Pension Protection Act of 1995 reinforces ERISA's fiduciary standards, abolishes the ETI clearinghouse, and prohibits the Department of Labor from abdicating its responsibility to pensioners by promoting ETI's.
While the President and our opponents in Congress continue to play politics with retirement issues, an interesting question has arisen: Who really is on the side of seniors? As House Republicans continue to move forward with our proposals to protect, to preserve, and strengthen Medicare and stop the attack on private pensions, and also roll back the President's tax increases on Social Security, it is becoming clear that our opponents' attacks are hollow and nothing more than political rhetoric.
Mr. Speaker, I believe at the end of the day, the American people will reward us for our leadership on senior issues and hold our opponents accountable for engaging in partisan politics.
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