Kent Conrad: “I had a chance to meet with Mr. Echo Hawk yesterday and we talked about a whole series of issues critically important in…”

This Retirement Security Plan structure that we have suggested I think would go a long way toward dealing with these issues.

The bottom 20 percent of earners get a 35-percent increase over what is scheduled, a more than 60-percent increase over what is payable.

I wish I could look you in the eye and say, you know, if we just had the will, we could reverse this, and we could go back to a time when defined benefit plans were on the increase. I do not think that is in the cards.

I urge you to vote for the confirmation of Dave Turk. I urge you to do it quickly.