Rob Andrews: “Mr. Speaker, I would urge our colleagues to vote in favor of the Miller substitute. If there is one asset that should be…”

“Mr. Speaker, I would urge our colleagues to vote in favor of the Miller substitute. If there is one asset that should be sacrosanct, if there is one asset that should be solid as a rock, it is our pensions. Prior to 1974, there were numerous problems with pensions as corrupt or incompetent boards of trustees mismanaged workers' funds. Twenty-nine years ago this Congress did something about that by passing the ERISA law. Since then, scandals and misappropriation of pension funds have been few and far between. They have been rare, and pensions have been largely safe. But there is a new kind of pension. It is a self-directed pension account, commonly called a 401(k). The problem with the 401(k) has admittedly been that workers who do not have sound advice have sometimes made unsound decisions and lost their money. There is no dispute that there is a need to provide solid and sound investment advice, but there is a strong dispute about how to do so. The substitute provides for advice; but frankly, it favors independent advice so the advice given is not given from the point of view of self-interest. The substitute provides a remedy.”