II 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3866 

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

of midlife and older Americans so as to enhance their retirement security 

and to reduce financial abuse and fraud among such Americans, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 7 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 6), 2006 

Mr. AKAKA (for himself, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Ms. STABENOW, Mr. SARBANES, 

and Mr. BAUCUS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 

referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To establish a grant program to enhance the economic and 

financial literacy of midlife and older Americans so as 

to enhance their retirement security 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 ‘‘Education for Retire5 ment Security Act of 2006’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) Improving economic and financial literacy is 

2 a critical and complex task for Americans of all 

3 ages. 

4 (2) Low levels of savings and high levels of per5 sonal and real estate debt are serious problems for 

6 many households nearing retirement. 

7 (3) Historically, Americans are living longer 

8 than ever before. However, most Americans are re9 tiring before the age of 65. 

10 (4) Research suggests that many Americans are 

11 not prepared to plan for their retirement and may 

12 have to work far longer than they expect in order to 

13 be financially secure in retirement. 

14 (5) In 2005, only 42 percent of workers or their 

15 spouses calculated the amount they needed to save 

16 for retirement, down from 53 percent in 2000. 

17 (6) Only 53 percent of working Americans have 

18 any form of pension coverage. Three out of 4 women 

19 aged 65 or older receive no income from employer20 provided pensions. 

21 (7) The limited timeframe that midlife and 

22 older individuals and families have to assess the re23 alities of their individual circumstances, to recover 

24 from counterproductive choices and decisionmaking 

25 processes, and to benefit from more informed finanVerDate Aug 31 2005 00:07 Sep 13, 2006 Jkt 049196 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3866.IS S3866

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1 cial practices, has immediate impact and near-term 

2 consequences for Americans nearing or of retirement 

3 age. 

4 (8) Research indicates that there are now 4 

5 basic sources of retirement income security. Those 

6 sources are social security benefits, pensions and 

7 savings, healthcare insurance coverage, and, for an 

8 increasing number of older individuals, necessary 

9 earnings from working during one’s retirement 

10 years. 

11 (9) Over the next 30 years, the number of older 

12 individuals in the United States is expected to dou13 ble, from 35,000,000 to nearly 75,000,000, and 

14 long-term care costs are expected to skyrocket. 

15 (10) Financial exploitation is the largest single 

16 category of abuse against older individuals and this 

population comprises more than 1 17 ⁄2 of all tele18 marketing victims in the United States. 

19 (11) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 

20 Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse has reported that 

21 incidents of identity theft targeting individuals older 

22 than the age of 60 increased from 1,821 victims in 

23 2000 to 21,084 victims in 2004, an increase of more 

24 than 11 times in number. 


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1 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act: 

3 (1) ALASKA NATIVE CORPORATION.—The term 

4 ‘‘Alaska Native Corporation’’ has the same meaning 

5 as the term ‘‘Native Corporation’’ under section 3 of 

6 the Alaska Native Claim Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 

7 1602). 

8 (2) ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL EDUCATION.— 

9 The term ‘‘economic and financial education’’ means 

10 education that— 

11 (A) promotes an understanding of con12 sumer, economic, and personal finance concepts, 

13 including— 

14 (i) basic economic concepts such as 

15 supply and demand and opportunity cost; 

16 and 

17 (ii) basic financial literacy concepts 

18 such as the importance of budgeting and 

19 money management, saving, retirement 

20 planning, and maintaining good credit; 

21 (B) includes information regarding preda22 tory lending and financial abuse schemes; and 

23 (C) is based on recognized economic and 

24 financial education standards. 

25 (3) ELIGIBLE AREA ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligi26 ble area entity’’ means an entity that is— 


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1 (A) a State agency, area agency on aging, 

2 Indian tribal organization, Alaska Native Cor3 poration, or Native Hawaiian organization; 

4 (B) a nonprofit organization with a proven 

5 record of providing— 

6 (i) services to midlife and older indi7 viduals; 

8 (ii) consumer awareness programs; or 

9 (iii) supportive services to low-income 

10 families; or 

11 (C) a partnership comprised of 2 or more 

12 entities described in subparagraph (A) or (B). 

13 (4) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti14 ty’’ means a national organization with substantial 

15 experience in the field of economic and financial edu16 cation. 

17 (5) MIDLIFE.—The term ‘‘midlife’’, when used 

18 with respect to an individual, means an individual 

19 aged 45 to 64 years. 

20 (6) NATIVE HAWAIIAN ORGANIZATION.—The 

21 term ‘‘Native Hawaiian organization’’ means any or22 ganization that— 

23 (A) serves and represents the interests of 

24 Native Hawaiians; and 


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1 (B) has as a primary and stated purpose 

2 the provision of services to Native Hawaiians. 

3 (7) OLDER.—The term ‘‘older’’, when used with 

4 respect to an individual, means an individual aged 

5 65 or older. 

6 (8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

7 the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

8 SEC. 4. PURPOSE AND GOALS. 

9 (a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to promote 

10 economic and financial literacy among midlife and older 

11 individuals, and to reduce financial abuse and fraud 

12 among such individuals, through providing assistance to 

13 organizations for economic and financial education pro14 grams. 

15 (b) GOALS.—The goals of this Act are— 

16 (1) to increase the knowledge of economic and 

17 financial literacy among midlife and older individuals 

18 to enable the individuals to make informed financial 

19 decisions; and 

20 (2) to reduce the amount of financial abuse and 

21 fraud among midlife and older individuals. 


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1 SEC. 5. GRANT PROGRAM TO ENHANCE ECONOMIC, FINAN2 CIAL, AND RETIREMENT LITERACY AND RE3 DUCE FINANCIAL ABUSE AND FRAUD AMONG 

4 MIDLIFE AND OLDER AMERICANS. 

5 (a) PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.—From amounts appro6 priated under section 8, the Secretary is authorized to 

7 award a grant to a national entity to enable the national 

8 entity to carry out the subgrant program for economic and 

9 financial education under section 6. 

10 (b) APPLICATION.—A national entity desiring a grant 

11 under this section shall submit an application to the Sec12 retary at such time, in such form, and containing such 

13 information as the Secretary may require, including a plan 

14 for continuing to carry out the program under this section 

15 after the grant expires. 

16 (c) LIMITATION ON ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—A na17 tional entity receiving a grant under this section may not 

18 use more than 5 percent of the total amount of the grant 

19 for each fiscal year for the administrative costs of carrying 

20 out the program under this section. 

21 (d) EVALUATION.—The Secretary shall evaluate the 

22 programs that receive grant funds under this section in 

23 order to judge the performance of such programs. 

24 (e) REPORT.—For each fiscal year for which grants 

25 are awarded under this section, the Secretary shall pre26 pare and submit to Congress a report on the program 


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1 under this section, which report shall include information 

2 from the evaluation under subsection (d) and the evalua3 tions under section 6(e). 

4 SEC. 6. SUBGRANT PROGRAM TO ENHANCE ECONOMIC, FI5 NANCIAL, AND RETIREMENT LITERACY AND 

6 REDUCE FINANCIAL ABUSE AND FRAUD 

7 AMONG MIDLIFE AND OLDER AMERICANS. 

8 (a) SUBGRANTS AUTHORIZED.—A national entity 

9 that receives a grant under section 5 shall use grant funds 

10 to award subgrants to eligible area entities to enable the 

11 eligible area entities to deliver economic and financial edu12 cation programs to midlife and older individuals who re13 side in local communities, in order to— 

14 (1) enhance financial and retirement knowledge 

15 among such individuals; and 

16 (2) reduce financial abuse and fraud, including 

17 telemarketing, mortgage, and pension fraud, and 

18 identity theft among such individuals. 

19 (b) APPLICATION.—An eligible area entity desiring a 

20 subgrant under this section shall submit an application to 

21 the national entity awarding the subgrants at such time, 

22 in such form, and containing such information as the na23 tional entity may require, including a plan for continuing 

24 the programs assisted with subgrant funds under this sec25 tion after the subgrant expires. 


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1 (c) AWARD BASIS.—In awarding subgrants under 

2 this section, a national entity shall— 

3 (1) give special consideration to eligible area en4 tities that are partnerships described in section 

5 3(3)(C); and 

6 (2) give priority to programs previously funded 

7 by a subgrant under this section that the Secretary 

8 judges effective under the evaluation described in 

9 subsection (e)(2)(A). 

10 (d) LIMITATION ON ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—An el11 igible area entity receiving a subgrant under this section 

12 may not use more than 5 percent of the total amount of 

13 the subgrant in each fiscal year for the administrative 

14 costs of carrying out the program under this section. 

15 (e) EVALUATION AND REPORT.— 

16 (1) ESTABLISHMENT OF PERFORMANCE MEAS17 URES.—A national entity awarding subgrants under 

18 this section shall develop measures to evaluate the 

19 programs that receive subgrant funds. 

20 (2) EVALUATION ACCORDING TO PERFORMANCE

21 MEASURES.—Applying the performance measures 

22 developed under paragraph (1), a national entity 

23 awarding subgrants under this section shall evaluate 

24 the programs that receive subgrant funds in order 

25 to— 


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1 (A) judge the performance and effective2 ness of such programs; 

3 (B) identify which programs represent the 

4 best practices of entities developing such pro5 grams for midlife and older individuals; 

6 (C) identify which programs may be rep7 licated; and 

8 (D) assess any behavioral change, as well 

9 as asset accumulation, made by program par10 ticipants. 

11 (3) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—For each fis12 cal year for which a national entity awards sub13 grants under this section, the national entity shall 

14 submit to the Secretary a report containing— 

15 (A) a description of the status of the 

16 subgrant program under this section; 

17 (B) a description of the programs provided 

18 with subgrant funds under this section; and 

19 (C) the results of the evaluation of such 

20 programs under paragraph (2). 

21 SEC. 7. NATIONAL TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 

22 PROGRAM. 

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

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


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1 (1) create and make available instructional ma2 terials and information that promote economic and 

3 financial education; and 

4 (2) provide training and other related assist5 ance regarding the establishment of economic and fi6 nancial education programs to eligible area entities 

7 awarded a subgrant under section 6. 

8 (b) APPLICATION.—An eligible entity desiring a grant 

9 under this section shall submit an application to the Sec10 retary at such time, in such form, and containing such 

11 information as the Secretary may require. 

12 (c) BASIS AND TERM.—The Secretary shall award a 

13 grant under this section on a competitive, merit basis for 

14 a term of 3 years. 

15 SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

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

18 of the fiscal years 2007 through 2010. 

19 (b) LIMITATION ON FUNDS FOR EVALUATION AND

20 REPORT.—The Secretary may not use more than 

21 $500,000 of the amounts appropriated under subsection 

22 (a) for each fiscal year to carry out section 6(e). 

23 (c) LIMITATION ON FUNDS FOR TRAINING AND

24 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary may not use 

25 less than 5 percent or more than 10 percent of the 


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1 amounts appropriated under subsection (a) for each fiscal 

2 year to carry out section 7. 

Æ 


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