Jan Meyers: “I rise in support of H.R. 1594, and I hope we pass this legislation today. We need to protect our American workers'…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 1594, and I hope we pass this legislation today. We need to protect our American workers' pension funds, and that is exactly what this bill does. Right now American workers have more than $3.5 trillion in private pension funds, and some view these savings as one way to fund various Government-favored programs. This kind of thinking led to disaster for a number of pension plans in the 1980's. In my State of Kansas, the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, known as KPERS, suffered gigantic losses resulting from an ill-fated program launched in the name of economic development in 1985. Back then some Kansas officials thought pension fund assets would be an ideal source of funds for stimulating economic development--the same notion currently being promoted by the administration and the Department of Labor. The idea caught on, and as a result, KPERS loaned $467 million to more than 100 companies from its cash assets in a direct placement loan program aimed at stimulating the Kansas economy. The investments made in the 1980's by KPERS would now be labeled as 'economically targeted' and would probably get on the Labor Department's new clearinghouse list. This is why I believe we must stop the administration's efforts to impose a socially motivated criteria in deciding where to invest pension funds.”