I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 531 

To establish a grant program to enhance the financial and retirement literacy 

of mid-life and older Americans and to reduce financial abuse and fraud 

among such Americans, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 17, 2007 

Mr. LYNCH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Education and Labor 

A BILL 

To establish a grant program to enhance the financial and 

retirement literacy of mid-life and older Americans and 

to reduce financial abuse and fraud among such Americans, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Retirement Security 

5 Education Act of 2007’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) Improving financial literacy is a critical and 

2 complex task for Americans of all ages. 

3 (2) Low levels of savings and high levels of per4 sonal and real estate debt are serious problems for 

5 many households nearing retirement. Personal sav6 ings rates have fallen to a dangerously low 2 per7 cent. 

8 (3) Approximately half of working Americans 

9 have any form of pension coverage. Today, just 21 

10 percent of workers have defined benefit coverage and 

11 just 27 percent of workers are enrolled in 401(k)s. 

12 (4) Because women have longer life 

13 expectancies, the number of poor older women is 

14 more than twice the number of poor older men. 

15 Studies have also found that there is a substantial 

16 gender gap in all sources of retirement income in17 cluding Social Security, pensions, savings and earn18 ings from post-retirement employment. 

19 (5) The more limited time frame that mid-life 

20 and older individuals and families have to assess the 

21 realities of their individual circumstances, to recover 

22 from counter-productive choices and decision-making 

23 processes, and to benefit from more informed finan24 cial practices, has immediate impact and near term 


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1 consequences for Americans nearing or of retirement 

2 age. 

3 (6) Research indicates that there are now 4 

4 basic sources of retirement income security. Those 

5 sources are social security benefits, pensions and 

6 savings, healthcare insurance coverage, and, for an 

7 increasing number of older individuals, necessary 

8 earnings from working during ‘‘retirement’’ years. 

9 (7) The Congressional Budget Office has found 

10 that about a quarter of baby-boomer households 

11 have so far failed to accumulate significant savings 

12 and that they appear likely to depend entirely on 

13 government benefits in retirement. 

14 (8) Over the next 30 years, the number of older 

15 individuals in the United States is expected to dou16 ble, from 35,000,000 to nearly 75,000,000, and 

17 long-term care costs are expected to skyrocket. 

18 (9) Over the next 25 years, the number of indi19 viduals over 65 years of age requiring long term care 

20 services is expected to double to approximately 12 

21 million. 

22 (10) Fraud against older individuals, including 

23 telemarketing schemes, predatory lending, identity 

24 theft and Internet fraud has risen dramatically. 


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1 SEC. 3. GRANT PROGRAM TO ENHANCE FINANCIAL AND RE2 TIREMENT LITERACY AND REDUCE FINAN3 CIAL ABUSE AND FRAUD AMONG MID-LIFE 

4 AND OLDER AMERICANS. 

5 (a) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary is authorized to 

6 award grants to eligible entities to provide financial edu7 cation programs to mid-life and older individuals who re8 side in local communities in order to— 

9 (1) enhance and promote knowledge of financial 

10 issues, long-term care, and retirement issues among 

11 such individuals; and 

12 (2) reduce financial abuse and fraud, including 

13 telemarketing, mortgage, and pension fraud, among 

14 such individuals. 

15 (b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—An entity is eligible to re16 ceive a grant under this section if such entity is— 

17 (1) a State agency or area agency on aging; or 

18 (2) a non-profit organization organized under 

19 section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code with 

20 a proven record of providing— 

21 (A) services to mid-life and older individ22 uals; 

23 (B) consumer awareness programs; or 

24 (C) supportive services to low-income fami25 lies. 


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1 (c) APPLICATION.—An eligible entity desiring a grant 

2 under this section shall submit an application to the Sec3 retary in such form and containing such information as 

4 the Secretary may require, including a plan for continuing 

5 the programs provided with grant funds under this section 

6 after the grant expires. 

7 (d) LIMITATION ON ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—A re8 cipient of a grant under this section may not use more 

9 than 4 percent of the total amount of the grant in each 

10 fiscal year for the administrative costs of carrying out the 

11 programs provided with grant funds under this section. 

12 (e) EVALUATION AND REPORT.— 

13 (1) ESTABLISHMENT OF PERFORMANCE MEAS14 URES.—The Secretary shall develop measures to 

15 evaluate the programs provided with grant funds 

16 under this section. 

17 (2) EVALUATION ACCORDING TO PERFORMANCE

18 MEASURES.—Applying the performance measures 

19 developed under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 

20 evaluate the programs provided with grant funds 

21 under this section in order to— 

22 (A) judge the performance and effective23 ness of such programs; 


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1 (B) identify which programs represent the 

2 best practices of entities developing such pro3 grams for mid-life and older individuals; and 

4 (C) identify which programs may be rep5 licated. 

6 (3) ANNUAL REPORTS.—For each fiscal year in 

7 which a grant is awarded under this section, the 

8 Secretary shall submit a report to Congress con9 taining a description of the status of the grant pro10 gram under this section, a description of the pro11 grams provided with grant funds under this section, 

12 and the results of the evaluation of such programs 

13 under paragraph (2). 

14 SEC. 4. NATIONAL TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 

15 PROGRAM. 

16 (a) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary is authorized to 

17 award a grant to 1 or more eligible entities to— 

18 (1) create and make available instructional ma19 terials and information that promote financial edu20 cation; and 

21 (2) provide training and other related assist22 ance regarding the establishment of financial edu23 cation programs to eligible entities awarded a grant 

24 under section 3. 


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1 (b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—An entity is eligible to re2 ceive a grant under this section if such entity is a non3 profit organization organized under Section 501(c)(3) of 

4 the Internal Revenue Code with substantial experience in 

5 the field of financial education. 

6 (c) APPLICATION.—An eligible entity desiring a grant 

7 under this section shall submit an application to the Sec8 retary in such form and containing such information as 

9 the Secretary may require. 

10 (d) BASIS AND TERM.—The Secretary shall award a 

11 grant under this section on a competitive, merit basis. 

12 SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

13 It is the sense of Congress that, in providing assist14 ance under this Act, the Secretary should place a high pri15 ority on the provision of such assistance to organizations 

16 that have demonstrated experience in providing financial 

17 education to older women. 

18 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 

19 In this Act: 

20 (1) AREA AGENCY ON AGING.—The term ‘‘area 

21 agency on aging’’ has the meaning given such term 

22 in section 102 of the Older Americans Act of 1965 

23 (42 U.S.C. 3002). 

24 (2) FINANCIAL EDUCATION.—The term ‘‘finan25 cial education’’ means education that promotes an 


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1 understanding of consumer, economic, and personal 

2 finance concepts, including saving for retirement, 

3 long-term care, and estate planning and education 

4 on predatory lending, identity theft, and financial 

5 abuse schemes. 

6 (3) MID-LIFE INDIVIDUAL.—The term ‘‘mid-life 

7 individual’’ means an individual aged 45 to 64 years. 

8 (4) OLDER INDIVIDUAL.—The term ‘‘older indi9 vidual’’ means an individual aged 65 or older. 

10 (5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

11 the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

12 (6) STATE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘State agency’’ 

13 has the meaning given such term in section 102 of 

14 the Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3002). 

15 SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

16 (a) AUTHORIZATION.—There is authorized to be ap17 propriated to carry out this Act, $100,000,000 for each 

18 of the fiscal years 2008 through 2012. 

19 (b) LIMITATION ON FUNDS FOR EVALUATION AND

20 REPORT.—The Secretary may use to carry out section 

21 3(e) not more than $200,000 of the amount appropriated 

22 under subsection (a) for each fiscal year. 

23 (c) LIMITATION ON FUNDS FOR TRAINING AND

24 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall use to 

25 carry out section 4 not less than 5 percent, and not more 


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1 than 10 percent, of the amount appropriated under sub2 section (a) for each fiscal year. 

Æ 


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