Tina Smith: “with over 77 million baby boomers beginning to retire in 2008, a serious retirement challenge is looming in our country.…”

“with over 77 million baby boomers beginning to retire in 2008, a serious retirement challenge is looming in our country. Moreover, with Americans living longer and a growing numbers of retirees facing the challenge of managing their own retirement savings, we need to provide them with better retirement options. In response, I rise today to offer legislation aimed at assisting people to maintain their financial independence and their standard of living throughout their retirement by making it easier for them to secure a steady income for life. In recent years, the focus of the ``retirement security'' debate in Congress has almost entirely been on the need to accumulate a nest egg to fund retirement. Congress is doing much to encourage personal saving and employer-provided retirement plans. I am proud of both our successes and our continuing efforts in these areas. Encouraging greater savings is an important step; however, it is not enough. Unfortunately, there has been little attention paid to the retirement income or ``payout'' phase of the retirement security equation. The risk of outliving one's savings is one of the biggest problems facing retirees.”