Thomas Mott Osborne: “I come from a family that has been in a small business operation for the last 100 years, and the biggest concern that I…”

“I come from a family that has been in a small business operation for the last 100 years, and the biggest concern that I hear in small businesses is government regulation; and I agree with many of the gentleman's proposals here. Some are good, but it does add complexity. It adds cost. And right now what we are seeing is a huge exodus from the retirement plan operations of so many companies. I am afraid that this would exacerbate the problem. For example, expanding the remedies of ERISA will quite likely lead to more litigation and more expense. Requiring 401(k) insurance is already provided by many plans but adds cost. Making it mandatory will cause people to exit the system. Reporting of insider sales is already governed by the Securities and Exchange Commission; so we think this is somewhat redundant. I am as embarrassed as the author of this substitute with some of the compensation plans that we have seen by various executives, and I agree this needs to be addressed. However, when we are dealing with something that has to do with pension reform, I do not believe that this is the appropriate vehicle to use at this time. So overall what I am saying is I believe the base bill provides sound pension reform without promoting so much complexity and expense that we would eliminate retirement plans. If we do so, we simply throw out the baby with the bath water; and I think as a result, we cause more problems than we solve.”