Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, first of all I want to emphasize again the bill does not prohibit pension plans investment in ETIs of any kind. So it does not matter what it is. The bill does not prevent you from investing in those ETIs. However, if you accept this amendment, then you create a negative implication for all other ETIs that we do not mention in the law. So every other ETI not mentioned in the law then becomes suspect. So if we are going to effectively prohibit any promotion of ETIs, either directly or by inference, then the bill cannot include specific reference to any particular type of plan investment. The bill does not change the legal status of ETIs, so pension plans can continue to invest in infrastructure improvements if they want to, but it surely is inappropriate for Congress to be passing judgment on any particular type of pension plan investment. ERISA clearly and properly leaves it to the plan manager and the fiduciaries to determine whether an investment is prudent for that plan. So let us not have a negative impact on ETIs simply because we single one out. Let us make very sure that we do not get in the business of determining as a Congress what are good or what are bad investments. That is up to the manager, as I indicated, and the fiduciaries, to determine, not us.”