To amend the securities laws to permit church pension plans to be invested in collective trusts.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1533) to amend the securities laws to permit church pension plans to be invested in collective trusts, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 1533.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), the ranking member of the Committee on Financial Services for managing the bill and his support. I would also like to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Ford), for his support and cosponsorship of this bill. I understand he would have been here but his plane has been diverted.

H.R. 1533, the Church Pension Fairness Act, will give the clergy and laypeople who work for churches the same investment opportunities that other workers have in America. Right now our securities laws prohibit church pension plans from participating in what we call collective trusts. As a result, church pension plans cannot pool their assets and reap the benefits of collective buying power. H.R. 1533 will correct this inequity.

One thing most working Americans understand is the importance of saving money to ensure financial security after they retire. Just as important, they understand that investing in an employer-sponsored pension plan is a great way to help achieve this goal.

America's clergy are no less interested in their retirement. In fact, for thousands of dedicated men and women of our clergy, pension plans are just as important, if not more so, as they are to members of the laity. Yet for far too long, Congress has failed to update church pension laws, making it more difficult for clergy and other church employees to maximize their retirement savings.

One arcane yet important provision of our security law allows corporate and other secular pension plans to band together into what are called collective trusts. These trusts allow pension plans to pool their assets for investment purposes in various stock and nonstock options.

They represent a way for pension plans to diversify their investments and to share the risks and transaction costs with other pension plans. Collective trusts are not the problem. The problem is that current law prohibits thousands of church pension plans across the country from participating in collective trusts. As a result, church pension plans cannot pool their assets and reap the benefits of collective buying power. H.R. 1533 will change this.

Mr. Speaker, I should add that collective trusts will continue to have sole management and control over the assets that are invested as required by the SEC. Nothing in this legislation is intended to alter the traditional SEC interpretation that the financial institution is responsible for exercising hands-on control over the collective trust. H.R. 1533 allows church plan assets to be included in collective trust funds that also include assets of private employee and governmental plans. But this measure does not in any way affect Tax Code provisions governing the treatment of pension plans, including the requirement that a church plan must be maintained by a church or eligible church- affiliated organization.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill. Our clergy deserve no less than the millions of other working men and women of America.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Committee on Financial Services, the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Oxley) and the ranking member, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank) for their support for this legislation which was reported out of committee unanimously, and I thank the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Ford) for his strong support as well as the chairman of the Subcommittee for Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Baker), and the ranking member, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kanjorski).

There is no sound reason in our securities laws to exclude the church plan participation and specifically tailored pension plan investments; and I think the gentleman from Massachusetts is right, this has been an oversight as we have changed the securities laws in the past that the church pension plans were not included. So the Church Pension Plan Fairness Act is a reasonable, measured, and fair response to many of the concerns raised by the clergy and other church employees around the country. Having no further requests for time, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to participate in the following votes due to a personal matter that kept me at home. If I had been present, I would have voted as follows:

September 3, 2003

Rollcall vote 460, on H.Res. 350, congratulating Lance Armstrong for winning the 2003 Tour de France, I would have vote ``yes.''

Rollcall vote 461, on H.R. 2309, the J. Stephen Horn Post Office Building Act, I would have voted ``yes.''

Rollcall vote 462, on H.R. 1533, to amend the securities laws to permit church pension plans to be invested in collective trusts, I would have voted ``yes.''

September 4, 2003

Rollcall vote 465, on the motion to table the motion to reconsider on H. Res. 351, I would have voted ``yes.''

Rollcall vote 469, on the Petri of Wisconsin amendment to H.R. 2989, I would have voted ``no.''

Rollcall vote 470, on the Tancredo of Colorado amendment to H.R. 2989, I would have voted ``yes.''

Rollcall vote 471, on the Hastings of Florida amendment to H.R. 2989, I would have voted ``no.''

Rollcall vote 472, on the Hooley of Oregon amendment to H.R. 2989, I would have voted ``no.''

Rollcall vote 473, on the Kennedy of Minnesota amendment to H.R. 2989, I would have voted ``yes.''

Rollcall vote 474, on the Jackson-Lee of Texas amendment to H.R. 2989, I would have voted ``no.''

Rollcall vote 475, on the Cooper of Tennessee amendment to H.R. 2989, I would have voted ``no.''

September 5, 2003

Rollcall vote 476, on the motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 6, I would have voted ``no.''

Rollcall vote 477, on the motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 1308, I would have voted ``no.''

Rollcall vote 478, on the Tom Davis of Virginia amendment to H.R. 2765, I would have voted ``yes.''

Rollcall vote 479, on the Norton of the District of Columbia amendment to H.R. 2765, I would have voted ``no.''

Rollcall vote 480, on the Hefley of Colorado amendment to H.R. 2765, I would have voted ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Ford) who, as the gentlewoman mentioned, is literally held up. His plane is probably trying to land, and he deserves a great deal of credit for this initiative.

This a perfectly common sense piece of legislation. It corrects what must have been an oversight in the legislation. There was never any reason to restrict churches. We are taking an action that expresses our confidence in the management of these institutions. It allows them to make rational choices about how best to maximize their funds.

I think this is particularly important because as we know, the clergy, that is one of the professions in this country that is, in my judgment, that is undercompensated. People who choose to go into the clergy are generally selfless people who care a great deal about others, as well as about their theology. They work very hard. They work on days that the rest of us, by definition, think of as days of rest, and they are not sufficiently compensated. We often hear of people who gave their lives not just to the clergy but to support roles, to the secretaries, to the support people, to the youth workers, and the notion that in their retirement years they would not be fully protected and given the maximum amount is a very troubling one.

This small step today is a very important one because it does as much as we can do within this context to take some steps towards enhancing the retirement security of some very decent hardworking people who, as I said, were somewhat undercompensated. I appreciate the initiative. I was pleased that our committee unanimously reported this out.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to offer my strong support for H.R. 1533, a bill to equalize the treatment of church and governmental pension plans. I want to commend a great member of the Financial Services Committee, Mrs. Biggert, for drafting excellent, bipartisan legislation and the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Baker), Chairman of the Capital Markets subcommittee, for his leadership in bringing this measure to the Floor today.

The purpose of this bill is straightforward: it provides parallel securities law treatment of church plan assets with those of governmental plans.

Under current law, there is a basic inequity with respect to church plans. This disparate treatment has real consequences. The inability of church plans to participate with other pension plans in collective trusts unnecessarily increases the costs for these investments and makes it more difficult for church plans to diversify their investments.

Mr. Speaker, there is no rational basis for treating church plans differently. Mrs. Biggert's legislation imposes fairness by eliminating this unnecessary burden on church pension plans. I urge all of my colleagues to support the bill.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 1533, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent the amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements related to this bill be printed in the Record.