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Pension Protection Act of 2006

Date: July 28, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Senior Citizens Entitlements and the Safety Net


PENSION PROTECTION ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - July 28, 2006)

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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

When you hear this argument and this debate, remember, a year ago, these are the people that were going to abandon the Social Security system. These are the people that were going to throw the Social Security system overboard.

I heard the gentleman from Arizona say, well, there is good things in the legislation and there is bad things in the legislation. Does anybody remember the S&L issue around here or did we have amnesia? There were good things about deregulating the S&Ls, and it cost the American taxpayer $500 billion, but a decade later.

The Wall Street Journal published a poll yesterday. I hear my Republican friends talking about how great everything is. How good everything is on Wall Street.

The American people are asked, in what direction is the country headed, right or wrong? And by almost two-thirds they say the wrong direction. They are paying $3.15 a gallon for gasoline, their health care plan is being taken away, and their retirement plan is being compromised, if not jeopardized. 401(k) plans are replacing the defined benefit that we had all come to know.

That is where the anxiety is coming from. That is why the American people think the country's headed in the wrong direction.

You are about to hasten the demise of the defined benefit plan by embracing this legislation tonight, and I want to say something as well to those who are witnessing the debate.

It has not been vetted through the committee system. It has not been presented back and forth between two parties. It is being put up on a Friday night, once again because they think you are not watching. That is the way the Ways and Means Committee has operated during the last few years. That is the way legislation's brought to the floor, no opportunity for the minority to ever be heard. We simply put it in front of this body, late at night so people cannot witness it, and then we move on from there. Whether it is good or bad, we will not have our fingerprints on it.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, what is the time remaining?

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