Barbara Boxer: “today Senator Corzine and I are introducing the Pension Protection and Diversification Act of 2001, (PPDA). I authored…”

“today Senator Corzine and I are introducing the Pension Protection and Diversification Act of 2001, (PPDA). I authored and Congress passed a bill in 1997 amending ERISA. That law bars employers from forcing employees to invest employee voluntary contributions to their 401(k) in the employer's real estate or equities with a couple of exceptions. I believe that what Enron did violated the law I authored. Enron "locked down" its pension fund for a period of time during which the company's stock plummeted. That lockdown effectively forced Enron employees to have their voluntary contributions and earnings on those contributions invested in Enron's plunging stock. That said, we are introducing the PPDA today in order to protect employees from losing their retirement savings in the future the way that Enron employees lost theirs. Enron employees were naturally drawn to Enron stock because of its meteoric rise. But when the stock crashed, it took many Enron employees' savings down with it. There are two lessons we should learn from this situation.”