II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 924 

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 27, 2005 

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

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 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 ‘‘Education for Retire5 ment Security Act of 2005’’. 

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. 

6 (3) Only 53 percent of working Americans have 

7 any form of pension coverage. Three out of four 

8 women aged 65 or over receive no income from em9 ployer-provided pensions. 

10 (4) The more limited timeframe that mid-life 

11 and older individuals and families have to assess the 

12 realities of their individual circumstances, to recover 

13 from counter-productive choices and decisionmaking 

14 processes, and to benefit from more informed finan15 cial practices, has immediate impact and near term 

16 consequences for Americans nearing or of retirement 

17 age. 

18 (5) Research indicates that there are now 4 

19 basic sources of retirement income security. Those 

20 sources are social security benefits, pensions and 

21 savings, healthcare insurance coverage, and, for an 

22 increasing number of older individuals, necessary 

23 earnings from working during one’s ‘‘retirement’’ 

24 years. 
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1 (6) Over the next 30 years, the number of older 

2 individuals in the United States is expected to dou3 ble, from 35,000,000 to nearly 75,000,000, and 

4 long-term care costs are expected to skyrocket. 

5 (7) Financial exploitation is the largest single 

6 category of abuse against older individuals and this 

population comprises more than 1 7 ⁄2 of all tele8 marketing victims in the United States. 

9 (8) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 

10 Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse has reported that 

11 incidents of identity theft targeting individuals over 

12 the age of 60 increased from 1,821 victims in 2000 

13 to 21,084 victims in 2004, an increase of more than 

14 11 times in number. 

15 SEC. 3. GRANT PROGRAM TO ENHANCE FINANCIAL AND RE16 TIREMENT LITERACY AND REDUCE FINAN17 CIAL ABUSE AND FRAUD AMONG MID-LIFE 

18 AND OLDER AMERICANS. 

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

20 award grants to eligible entities to provide financial edu21 cation programs to mid-life and older individuals who re22 side in local communities in order to— 

23 (1) enhance financial and retirement knowledge 

24 among such individuals; and 
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1 (2) reduce financial abuse and fraud, including 

2 telemarketing, mortgage, and pension fraud, among 

3 such individuals. 

4 (b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—An entity is eligible to re5 ceive a grant under this section if such entity is— 

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

7 (2) a nonprofit organization with a proven 

8 record of providing— 

9 (A) services to mid-life and older individ10 uals; 

11 (B) consumer awareness programs; or 

12 (C) supportive services to low-income fami13 lies. 

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

15 under this section shall submit an application to the Sec16 retary in such form and containing such information as 

17 the Secretary may require, including a plan for continuing 

18 the programs provided with grant funds under this section 

19 after the grant expires. 

20 (d) LIMITATION ON ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—A re21 cipient of a grant under this section may not use more 

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

23 fiscal year for the administrative costs of carrying out the 

24 programs provided with grant funds under this section. 

25 (e) EVALUATION AND REPORT.— 
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1 (1) ESTABLISHMENT OF PERFORMANCE MEAS2 URES.—The Secretary shall develop measures to 

3 evaluate the programs provided with grant funds 

4 under this section. 

5 (2) EVALUATION ACCORDING TO PERFORMANCE

6 MEASURES.—Applying the performance measures 

7 developed under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall 

8 evaluate the programs provided with grant funds 

9 under this section in order to— 

10 (A) judge the performance and effective11 ness of such programs; 

12 (B) identify which programs represent the 

13 best practices of entities developing such pro14 grams for mid-life and older individuals; and 

15 (C) identify which programs may be rep16 licated. 

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

18 which a grant is awarded under this section, the 

19 Secretary shall submit a report to Congress con20 taining a description of the status of the grant pro21 gram under this section, a description of the pro22 grams provided with grant funds under this section, 

23 and the results of the evaluation of such programs 

24 under paragraph (2). 
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1 SEC. 4. NATIONAL TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 

2 PROGRAM. 

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

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

5 (1) create and make available instructional ma6 terials and information that promote financial edu7 cation; and 

8 (2) provide training and other related assist9 ance regarding the establishment of financial edu10 cation programs to eligible entities awarded a grant 

11 under section 3. 

12 (b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—An entity is eligible to re13 ceive a grant under this section if such entity is a national 

14 nonprofit organization with substantial experience in the 

15 field of financial education. 

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

17 under this section shall submit an application to the Sec18 retary in such form and containing such information as 

19 the Secretary may require. 

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

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

22 a term of 5 years. 

23 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 

24 In this Act: 

25 (1) FINANCIAL EDUCATION.—The term ‘‘finan26 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 and financial abuse schemes. 

5 (2) MID-LIFE INDIVIDUAL.—The term ‘‘mid-life 

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

7 (3) OLDER INDIVIDUAL.—The term ‘‘older indi8 vidual’’ means an individual aged 65 or older. 

9 (4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

10 the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

11 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

12 (a) AUTHORIZATION.—There are authorized to be ap13 propriated to carry out this Act, $100,000,000 for each 

14 of the fiscal years 2006 through 2010. 

15 (b) LIMITATION ON FUNDS FOR EVALUATION AND

16 REPORT.—The Secretary may not use more than 

17 $200,000 of the amounts appropriated under subsection 

18 (a) for each fiscal year to carry out section 3(e). 

19 (c) LIMITATION ON FUNDS FOR TRAINING AND

20 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary may not use 

21 less than 5 percent or more than 10 percent of amounts 

22 appropriated under subsection (a) for each fiscal year to 

23 carry out section 4. 

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