Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site Boundary Revision Act of 2007

Mr. President, in the remaining time that I have allocated, I wish to talk about another subject, and that is the United States Tax Code. I believe that as I speak there are thousands of Americans, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans, now calculating their income tax for the year 2006.

Today is April the 10th. Tax returns have to be filed during the course of the next week to comply with the Federal tax laws, and this is a matter which is very much on the minds of thousands of Americans, perhaps even some watching the Senate on C-SPAN are in the process of compiling their tax returns. I will use this occasion to again introduce legislation for the flat tax.

The flat tax is a new structure of taxation of income in the United States under a model proposed by Professors Hall and Rabushka, from Stanford University, which would enable taxpayers to file their returns on a simple postcard, which I hold in my hand, where the tax return can be filled out in the course of 15 minutes. It has some 10 lines to fill out: Wages, personal allowance, number of dependents, mortgage interest deduction, charitable contributions, total for deductions, total taxable compensation, tax of 20 percent, tax withheld by employer, and the tax or refund due.

We have a system in the United States today where the statistics are astounding. There are some 582 tax forms to be filled out by Americans who file their tax returns. There are some 6.4 billion hours and $265 billion each year spent in complying with the tax laws. The IRS Code and regulations fill more than 17,000 pages and have grown from some 744,000 words in 1955 to over 7 million words 50 years later in the year 2005.

Albert Einstein, genius that he was, is quoted as saying:

The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income

tax.

For a man who developed the theory of relativity, that is quite an indictment of the American tax system.

This change in the tax laws would be a godsend for the U.S. economy. Economists estimate that in the course of 7 years, the gross national product would increase by $2 trillion, attributable solely to the efficiencies which would come about by relieving this enormous regulatory burden.

We talk frequently about the burden of regulation in the Federal Government, but the most onerous regulatory form is the tax form, or the tax regulations, which are a burden on all Americans. When you take a look at the cost of compliance, at $265 billion a year, and take a look at the loopholes of some $390 billion a year, which would be eliminated by the flat tax, and $120 billion a year in tax fraud, with the $10 billion a year it costs to run the Internal Revenue Service, it is obvious what an enormous savings there would be in the economy. Most importantly, there would be the savings to individual citizens who, on the average, require about 14 hours to fill out a tax return. Many citizens now hire specialists because the tax forms have become so complicated.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the flat tax return, plus the legislation itself, and my full statement on this subject be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

Mr. President, there is one additional comment on the flat tax return. I have incorporated in the statement an analysis of taxes which would be made by people at various levels of the income spectrum, and for a married couple with two children, with an annual income of $40,000, an analysis of the comparison shows a decrease in taxes of $1,217. For middle-class taxpayers, with comparable taxes, a slight increase but relatively little compared to the enormous savings that are involved.

I thank the Chair, and I thank my colleague from Iowa for yielding me the time, and I yield the floor.

Exhibit 1

Tax Day 2007 Floor Statement

Mr. Specter. Mr. President, this week, American taxpayers

face another Federal income tax deadline. The date of April

15 (or April 16 this year) stabs fear, anxiety, and unease

into the hearts of millions of Americans. Every year during

``tax season,'' millions of Americans spend their evenings

poring over page after page of IRS instructions, going

through their records looking for information and struggling

to find and fill out all the appropriate forms on their

federal tax returns. Americans are intimidated by the sheer

number of different tax forms and their instructions, many of

which they may be unsure whether they need to file. Given the

approximately 582 possible forms, not to mention the

instructions that accompany them, simply trying to determine

which form to file can in itself be a daunting and

overwhelming task. In 2006, studies conducted by the Office

of Management and Budget and the Tax Foundation found that

American taxpayers, including

businesses, spend more than 6.4 billion hours and $265

billion each year complying with tax laws. That works out to

more than $2,500 per U.S. household. Much of this time is

spent burrowing through IRS laws and regulations which fill

over 17,000 pages and have grown from 744,000 words in 1955

to 7.1 million words in 2005. By contrast, the Pledge of

Allegiance has only 31 words, the Gettysburg Address has 267

words, the Declaration of Independence has about 1,300 words,

and the Bible has only about 1,773,000 words.

The majority of taxpayers face filing tax forms that are

far too complicated and take far too long to complete.

According to the estimated preparation time listed on the

forms by the IRS, the 2006 Form 1040 is estimated to take 13

hours and 15 minutes to complete. Moreover this does not

include the estimated time to complete the accompanying

schedules, such as Schedule A, for itemized deductions, which

carries an estimated preparation time of 5 hours, 37 minutes,

or Schedule D, for reporting capital gains and losses, which

shows an estimated preparation time of 6 hours, 10 minutes.

Moreover, this complexity is getting worse each year. Just

from 2000 to 2004 the estimated time to prepare Form 1040

jumped 34 minutes.

It is no wonder that well over half of all taxpayers, 61

percent according to a recent survey, now hire an outside

professional to prepare their tax returns for them. However,

the fact that only about 35 percent of individuals itemize

their deductions shows that a significant percentage of our

taxpaying population believes that the tax system is too

complex for them to deal with. We all understand that paying

taxes will never be something we enjoy, but neither should it

be cruel and unusual punishment. Further, the pace of change

to the Internal Revenue Code is brisk--Congress made over

9,500 tax code changes in the past fifteen years. And we are

far from being finished. Year after year, we continue to ask

the same question--isn't there a better way?

My flat tax legislation would make filing a tax return a

manageable chore, not a seemingly endless nightmare, for most

taxpayers. My flat tax legislation will fundamentally revise

the present tax code, with its myriad rates, deductions, and

instructions. This legislation would institute a simple, flat

20 percent tax rate for all individuals and businesses. This

proposal is not cast in stone, but is intended to move the

debate forward by focusing attention on three key principles

which are critical to an effective and equitable taxation

system: simplicity, fairness and economic growth.

My flat tax plan would eliminate the kinds of frustrations

I have outlined above for millions of taxpayers. This flat

tax would enable us to scrap the great majority of the IRS

rules, regulations and instructions and delete most of the

7.1 million words in the Internal Revenue Code. Instead of

billions of hours of non-productive time spent in compliance

with, or avoidance of, the tax code, taxpayers would spend

only the small amount of time necessary to fill out a

postcard-sized form. Both business and individual taxpayers

would thus find valuable hours freed up to engage in

productive business activity, or for more time with their

families, instead of poring over tax tables, schedules and

regulations.

My flat tax proposal is dramatic, but so are its

advantages: a taxation system that is simple, fair and

designed to maximize prosperity for all Americans. A summary

of the key advantages are:

Simplicity: A 10-line postcard filing would replace the

myriad forms and attachments currently required, thus saving

Americans the 6.4 billion hours they currently spend every

year in tax compliance.

Cuts government: The flat tax would eliminate the lion's

share of IRS rules, regulations and requirements, which have

grown from 744,000 words in 1955 to 7.1 approximately 94,000

employees, creating opportunities to put their expertise to

use elsewhere in the government or in private industry.

Promotes economic growth: Economists estimate a growth due

to a flat tax of over $2 trillion in national wealth over

seven years, representing an increase of approximately $7,500

in personal wealth for every man, woman and child in America.

This growth would also lead to the creation of 6 million new

jobs.

Increases efficiency: Investment decisions would be made on

the basis of productivity rather than simply for tax

avoidance, thus leading to even greater economic expansion.

Reduces interest rates: Economic forecasts indicate that

interest rates would fall substantially, by as much as two

points, as the flat tax removes many of the current

disincentives to savings.

Lowers compliance costs: Americans would be able to save or

invest the $265 billion they currently spend every year in

tax compliance.

Decreases fraud: As tax loopholes are eliminated and the

tax code is simplified, there will be far less opportunity

for tax avoidance and fraud. Currently, the IRS is estimating

a tax gap of $300 billion a year.

Reduces IRA costs: Simplification of the tax code will

allow us to save significantly on the $10 billion annual

budget currently allocated to the Internal Revenue Service.

The most dramatic way to illustrate the flat tax is to

consider that the income tax form for the flat tax is printed

on a postcard--it will allow all taxpayers to file their

April 15 tax returns on a simple 10-line postcard. This

postcard will take 15 minutes to fill out.

At my town hall meetings across Pennsylvania, the public

support for fundamental tax reform is overwhelming. I would

point out in those speeches that I never leave home without

two key documents: (1) my copy of the Constitution; and (2) a

copy of my 10-line flat tax postcard. I soon realized that I

needed more than just one copy of my flat tax postcard--many

people wanted their own postcard so that they could see what

life in a flat tax world would be like, where tax returns

only take 15 minutes to fill out and individual taxpayers are

no longer burdened with double taxation on their dividends,

interest, capital gains and estates.

This is a win-win situation for America because it lowers

the tax burden on the taxpayers in the lower brackets. For

example in the 2006 tax year, the standard deduction is

$5,150 for a single taxpayer, $7,550 for a head of household

and $10,300 for a married couple filing jointly, while the

personal exemption for individuals and dependents is $3,300.

Thus, under the current tax code, a family of four which does

not itemize deductions would pay taxes on all income over

$23,500--that is personal exemptions of $13,200 and a

standard deduction of $10,300. By contrast, under my flat tax

bill, that same family would receive a personal exemption of

$37,500, and would pay tax on income over that amount.

The tax loopholes enable write-offs of some $390 billion a

year. What is eliminated under the flat tax are the

loopholes, the deductions in this complicated code which can

be deciphered, interpreted, and found really only by the

$500-an-hour lawyers. That money is lost to the taxpayers.

$120 billion would be saved by the elimination of fraud

because of the simplicity of the Tax Code, the taxpayer being

able to find out exactly what they owe.

This bill is modeled after a proposal organized and

written by two very distinguished professors of law from

Stanford University, Professor Hall and Professor Rabushka.

Their model was first introduced in the Congress in the fall

of 1994 by Majority Leader Richard Armey. I introduced the

flat tax bill--the first one in the Senate--on March 2, 1995,

Senate bill 488. On October 27, 1995, I introduced a Sense of

the Senate Resolution calling on my colleagues to expedite

Congressional adoption of a flat tax. The Resolution, which

was introduced as an amendment to pending legislation, was

not adopted. I reintroduced my legislation in the 105th

Congress with slight modifications to reflect inflation-

adjusted increases in the personal allowances and dependent

allowances. I reintroduced the bill on April l5, 1999 income

tax day--in a bill denominated as S. 822. I then introduced

my flat tax legislation as an amendment to S. 1429, the Tax

Reconciliation bill; the amendment was not adopted. During

the 108th Congress, I introduced my flat tax legislation once

again on April 11, 2003. On May 14, 2003, I offered an

amendment to the Tax Reconciliation legislation urging the

Senate to hold hearings and consider legislation providing

for a flat tax; this amendment passed by a vote of 70 to 30

on May 15, 2003. I then testified on this issue at a

subsequent hearing held by the Joint Economic Committee on

November 5, 2003. On April 15, 2005, I reintroduced my flat

tax legislation in a bill denominated as S. 812. Today, I

again put forward this legislation with two minor changes.

The first is that the numbers for personal exemptions and

deductions have been adjusted for inflation. The second is a

newly inserted provision that will allow these numbers to

continue to be adjusted for inflation in the years to come.

This change will prevent these exemptions and deductions from

losing value over time.

Over the years and prior to my legislative efforts on

behalf of flat tax reform, I have devoted considerable time

and attention to analyzing our nation's tax code and the

policies which underlie it. I began the study of the

complexities of the tax code over 40 years ago as a law

student at Yale University. I included some tax law as part

of my practice in my early years as an attorney in

Philadelphia. In the spring of 1962, I published a law review

article in the Villanova Law Review, ``Pension and Profit

Sharing Plans: Coverage and Operation for Closely Held

Corporations and Professional Associations,'' 7 Villanova L.

Rev. 335, which in part focused on the inequity in making

tax-exempt retirement benefits available to some kinds of

businesses but not others. It was apparent then, as it is

now, that the very complexities of the Internal Revenue Code

could be used to give unfair advantage to some. Einstein

himself is quoted as saying ``the hardest thing in the world

to understand is the income tax.''

The Hall-Rabushka model envisioned a flat tax with no

deductions whatsoever. After considerable reflection, I

decided to include in the legislation limited deductions for

home mortgage interest for up to $125,000 in borrowing and

charitable contributions up to $3,125. While these

modifications undercut the pure principle of the flat tax by

continuing the use of tax policy to promote home buying and

charitable contributions, I believe that those two deductions

are so deeply ingrained in the financial planning of American

families that they should be retained as a matter of fairness

and public policy--and also political practicality. With

those two deductions maintained, passage of a modified flat

tax will be difficult, but without them, probably impossible.

In my judgment, an indispensable prerequisite to enactment

of a modified flat tax is revenue neutrality. Professor Hall

advised

that the revenue neutrality of the Hall-Rabushka proposal,

which uses a 19 percent rate, is based on a well-documented

model founded on reliable governmental statistics. My

legislation raises that rate from 19 percent to 20 percent to

accommodate retaining limited home mortgage interest and

charitable deductions.

This proposal taxes business revenues fully at their

source, so that there is no personal taxation on interest,

dividends, capital gains, gifts or estates. Restructured in

this way, the tax code can become a powerful incentive for

savings and investment--which translates into economic growth

and expansion, more and better jobs, and raising the standard

of living for all Americans.

The key advantages of this flat tax plan are threefold:

First, it will dramatically simplify the payment of taxes.

Second, it will remove much of the IRS regulatory morass now

imposed on individual and corporate taxpayers, and allow

those taxpayers to devote more of their energies to

productive pursuits. Third, since it is a plan which rewards

savings and investment, the flat tax will spur economic

growth in all sectors of the economy as more money flows into

investments and savings accounts.

Professors Hall and Rabushka have projected that within

seven years of enactment, this type of a flat tax would

produce a 6 percent increase in output from increased total

work in the U.S. economy and increased capital formation. The

economic growth would mean a $7,500 increase in the personal

income of all Americans. No one likes to pay taxes. But

Americans will be much more willing to pay their taxes under

a system that they believe is fair, a system that they can

understand, and a system that they recognize promotes rather

than prevents growth. and prosperity. My flat tax legislation

will afford Americans such a tax system.

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TS10AP07.001

A variety of specific cases illustrate the fairness and

simplicity of this flat tax:

Case #1--Married couple with two children, rents home, yearly income

$40,000

Under Current Law:

Income........................................................$40,000

Four personal exemptions.......................................13,200

Standard deduction.............................................10,300

Taxable income.................................................16,500

Tax due under current rates....................................$1,717

Mr. President, today I will introduce the End Racial Profiling Act of 2007.

Ending racial profiling in America has been a priority for me for many years. I worked with the senior Senator from New Jersey, Senator Lautenberg, back in 1999 on a bill to collect statistics on traffic stops, which is where the problem of racial profiling was first revealed. Many studies from around the country now confirm that racial profiling is indeed a real problem that wastes police resources and diminishes trust between police departments and the communities they protect.

In 2001, in his first State of the Union address, President Bush told the American people that ``racial profiling is wrong and we will end it in America.'' He asked the Attorney General to implement a policy to end racial profiling. The Department of Justice released a Fact Sheet and Policy Guidance addressing racial profiling in 2003, stating that racial profiling is wrong and ineffective and perpetuates negative racial stereotypes in our country. Though these guidelines are helpful, they do not end racial profiling and they do not have the force of law. Unfortunately, more than 6 years after the President's promise to the country, we have not yet ended racial profiling in this country.

The End Racial Profiling Act of 2007 will do what the President promised; it will help America achieve the goal of bringing an end to racial profiling. This bill bans racial profiling and requires Federal, State, and local law enforcement officers to take steps to end this practice.

Racial profiling is the practice by which some law enforcement agents treat differently African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Arab Americans and others simply because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, or perceived religion. I have the utmost respect for law enforcement agents, and I believe that most of them do not engage in this practice. Nonetheless, reports in States from New Jersey to Florida, and Maryland to Texas all show that African Americans, Hispanics, and members of other minority groups were stopped by some police far more often than their share of the population and the crime rates for those racial categories.

Passing this bill is even more urgent after 9/11, as we have seen racial profiling used against Arab and Muslim Americans or Americans perceived to be Arab or Muslim. The 9/11 attacks were horrific, and I share the determination of many Americans that finding those responsible and preventing future attacks should be this Nation's top priority. This is a challenge that our country can and must meet. But to do that we need improved intelligence and law enforcement. Making assumptions based on racial, ethnic, or religious stereotypes will not protect our nation from crime or from future terrorist attacks.

A report released in May by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, covering 2005 data, found that while an African American person is now almost equally likely to be stopped as a white person, he or she is more than two and a half times more likely to be searched, more than twice as likely to be arrested, and more than three and a half times more likely to experience the use of force. Yet, according to studies from multiple police jurisdictions, these encounters with law enforcement are less likely to reveal criminal activity on the part of African Americans than whites. The flagrancy of this flawed and irrational practice has led Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree to observe, ``If I'm dressed in a knit cap and hooded jacket, I'm probable cause.''

The disparities outlined above, which also apply to other ethnic groups, have led the International Association of Chiefs of Police to call for an end to racial profiling. In addition, police departments around the country have independently developed programs and policies to prevent racial profiling and comply with the Department of Justice's policy guidance. In my own State of Wisconsin, law enforcement officials have taken steps to train police officers, improve academy training, establish model policies prohibiting racial profiling, and improve relations with our State's diverse communities. I applaud the efforts of Wisconsin law enforcement. This is excellent progress and shows widespread recognition that racial profiling harms our society. But like the DOJ policy guidance, local programs don't have the force of law behind them. The Federal government must step up, as President Bush promised. It must play a vital role in protecting civil rights and acting as a model for State and local law enforcement.

Now, perhaps more than ever before, our Nation cannot afford to waste precious law enforcement resources or alienate Americans by tolerating discriminatory practices. The mass detention of hundreds of Middle Eastern and Arab men on minor violations after 9/11, for example, resulted in not a single terrorism charge. These detentions did, however, shatter the lives of many people with no connection to terrorism whatsoever through lengthy disappearances, detentions, and deportations.

Similarly, when the Federal Government required the registration of individuals from Arab or Muslim countries in 2002, between 500 and 1,000 registrants who voluntarily complied were detained in the Los Angeles/Orange County area alone. Such heavy-handed tactics do not help us in fighting terrorism--they shut off dialogue and make good people unwilling to risk interaction with their Government. Treating sympathetic communities as suspicious ones is counterproductive, and it is wrong.

It is past time for Congress and the President to enact comprehensive Federal legislation that will end racial profiling once and for all. In clear language, the End Racial Profiling Act of 2007 bans racial profiling. It defines racial profiling in terms that are consistent with the Department of Justice's Policy Guidance. But this bill does more than prohibit and define racial profiling--it gives law enforcement agencies and officers the tools necessary to end the harmful practice. For that reason, the End Racial Profiling Act of 2007 is a pro-law enforcement bill.

This bill would allow the Justice Department or individuals to enforce the prohibition by filing a suit for injunctive relief. The bill would also require Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies to adopt policies prohibiting racial profiling, implement effective complaint procedures or create independent auditor programs, implement disciplinary procedures for officers who engage in the practice, and collect data on routine and spontaneous investigatory activities. In addition, it requires the Attorney General to report to Congress so Congress and the American people can monitor whether the steps outlined in the bill to prevent and end racial profiling have been effective.

This bill also authorizes the Attorney General to provide incentive grants to help law enforcement comply with the ban on racial profiling, including funds to conduct training of police officers or purchase in- car video cameras.

Like the bill I introduced in 2005, this year's bill contains a significant improvement over previous versions. In some early proposals, DOJ grants for State and local law enforcement agencies were tied to the agency having some kind of procedure for handling complaints of racial profiling. At the suggestion of experts in the field, the bill now requires law enforcement agencies to adopt either an administrative complaint procedure or an independent auditor program to be eligible for DOJ grants. The Attorney General must promulgate regulations that set out the types of procedures and audit programs that will be sufficient. We believe that the independent auditor option will be preferable for many local law enforcement agencies, and such programs have proven to be an effective way to discourage racial profiling. Also, the Attorney General is required to conduct a 2-year demonstration project to help law enforcement agencies with data collection.

Let me emphasize that local, State, and Federal law enforcement agents play a vital role in protecting the public from crime and protecting the Nation from terrorism. The vast majority of law enforcement agents nationwide discharge their duties professionally and without bias and we are all indebted to them for their courage and dedication. This bill should not be misinterpreted as a criticism of those who

put their lives on the line for the rest of us each and every day. Rather, it is a statement that the use of race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin in deciding which persons should be subject to traffic stops, stops and frisks, questioning, searches, and seizures is wrong and ineffective, except where there is specific information linking persons of a particular race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin to a crime.

The provisions in this bill will help restore the trust and confidence of the communities that our law enforcement have pledged to serve and protect. That confidence is crucial to our success in stopping crime and in stopping terrorism. The End Racial Profiling Act of 2007 is good for law enforcement and good for America.

I urge the President to make good on his pledge to end racial profiling, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the End Racial Profiling Act of 2007.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I am pleased to rise today with my colleague Senator Gordon Smith to introduce the Global Pediatric HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment Act. Millions across the world recently observed the 20th World AIDS Day on December 1, a day of mourning, solidarity, and hope: mourning for the more than 25 million killed already in the AIDS pandemic; solidarity with the 33.2 million living with HIV today; and hope that this plague will be conquered in our time--with an achievable goal of realizing the birth of an HIV-free generation.

In the U.S., we have reached a point where a child living with HIV/ AIDS no longer faces certain death. Thanks to anti-retroviral, ARV, therapy, many children born infected with HIV/AIDS now have the opportunity to grow up healthy. However, long-term survival is a dream that eludes most of the 2.5 million HIV-infected children around the world.

Of the more than 2.5 million new HIV infections in 2007, more than 420,000 were in children. But while children account for almost 16 percent of all new HIV infections, they make up only 9 percent of those on treatment under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR. Without proper care and treatment, half of these newly-infected children will die before their second birthday and 75 percent will die before their fifth.

Every day, approximately 1,100 children across the globe are infected with HIV, the vast majority through mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy, labor or delivery or soon after through breastfeeding. Approximately 90 percent of these infections occur in Africa. With no medical intervention, HIV-positive mothers have a 25 to 30 percent chance of passing the virus to their babies during pregnancy and childbirth. Yet, a single dose of an ARV drug given once to the mother at the onset of labor and once to the baby during the first three days of life reduces transmission of HIV by approximately 50 percent. Providing the full range of interventions, as is the standard of care in the U.S., can further reduce the rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to as little as 2 percent. However, according to UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, less than 10 percent of pregnant women with HIV in resource-poor countries have access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission, PMTCT, services.

Significant barriers to PMTCT and the equal care and treatment of HIV-infected children continue to exist. Among the barriers to PMTCT services is their poor integration into the healthcare system, the lack of infrastructure and poor quality health facilities, low utilization of pre-natal services, and a high percentage of unattended at-home births. Because children are not just small adults, providing care and treatment presents special challenges such as limited access to reliable HIV testing for the youngest children, a shortage of providers trained in delivering pediatric care, weak linkages between services to prevent mother-to-child transmission and care and treatment programs, and the need for additional, low-cost formulations of HIV/AIDS medications.

The unfortunate reality of current HIV/AIDS treatment programs is that they will become unsustainable in the long-term unless the number of new HIV infections is reduced globally. The importance of PMTCT for the prevention of the spread of HIV cannot be overstated. According to UNAIDS, prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission requires a comprehensive package of services that includes preventing primary HIV infection in

women, preventing unintended pregnancies in women with HIV infection, preventing transmission from HIV-infected pregnant women to their infants, and providing care, treatment and support for HIV-infected women and their families. A 2003 study found that by adding family planning through PMTCT services in 14 high prevalence countries, more than 150,000 unintended pregnancies were averted, child infections averted nearly doubled, and child deaths averted nearly quadrupled. Studies also show that current levels of contraceptive use in sub- Saharan Africa are already preventing an estimated 22 percent of HIV- positive births.

For many pregnant mothers, PMTCT services may be the only entry point for health care services for themselves and their families. That is why it is essential that PMTCT services be integrated with prevention, care and treatment services. With adequate integration of those services and strategies to ensure successful follow-up and continuity of care, we can significantly improve the outcomes for HIV-affected women and families.

The legislation I am introducing today, the Global Pediatric HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment Act, will help prevent thousands of new pediatric HIV infections in the years to come and improve the treatment of children living with HIV/AIDS throughout the world. The legislation will bring our international HIV/AIDS efforts in line with the infection rate of children, by establishing a target that, within 5 years, 15 percent of those receiving care and treatment under PEPFAR should be children.

The legislation establishes another 5-year target to help prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In those countries most affected, 80 percent of pregnant women should receive HIV counseling and testing, with all those testing positive receiving anti-retroviral medication for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Under the legislation, the U.S. comprehensive, 5-year global strategy to combat global HIV/AIDS must also integrate prevention, care and treatment with prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs, as soon as feasible and consistent with the national government policies of the foreign countries of PEPFAR countries in order to improve outcomes for HIV-affected women and families and to promote follow-up and continuity of care.

Lastly, the legislation authorizes the creation of a Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Expert Panel to provide an objective review of PMTCT activities funded under PEPFAR and to provide recommendations to the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator for scale- up of mother-to-child transmission prevention services under PEPFAR in order to reach the newly-established target for PTMCT. The Panel consists of no more than 15 members, to be appointed by the coordinator, and will terminate once it submits its report containing recommendations, findings and conclusions to the coordinator, Congress, and is made public.

To be clear, this legislation does not establish any earmarks within PEPFAR. It does not dictate how much money should be spent on specific activities. I, for one, oppose the current policy under PEPFAR which dictates that one-third of all prevention funds be reserved for abstinence-until-marriage programs, to the detriment of other more effective programs that are producing better results. Certainly abstinence programs have a role to play in PEPFAR, but they should not draw funding away from other, more effective programs. Therefore, it is my hope that Congress does away with that earmark when it reauthorizes PEPFAR, and instead allows for flexibility within PEPFAR.

Instead, the legislation sets 5-year targets that are focused on those receiving services without specifying how much money any given country should spend on specific services to reach the target. I believe this approach is consistent with the April 2007 Institute of Medicine report on PEPFAR which called on Congress to replace arbitrary budget directives with specific targets accounting for the unique epidemics in specific countries, as well as existing available resources. Removal of budget restrictions and the implementation of program targets, such as those authorized under this legislation, would allow local providers to invest in the services and activities most needed to achieve national goals for prevention, care, and treatment.

The struggle against this disease continues on all fronts. Just recently, a report showed that right here in Washington, D.C., the city is in the grip of a ``modern epidemic,'' with one in 20 residents HIV- infected, a rate ten times the national average. In my own State of Connecticut, the need for care and treatment services is at an all time high, while the funding to meet this increased need has declined.

As we take stock of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and our progress against it, we must bear in mind the special vulnerability of the world's children. With this legislation we can increase the number of children receiving care and treatment under PEPFAR and expand access to PMTCT services in order to prevent thousands of new pediatric HIV infections.

I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I am here today to introduce, along with Senator Kohl, the Defined Contribution Fee Disclosure Act. This legislation is designed to address what may seem at first glance like a small issue, but in fact has a dramatic impact on the retirement security of millions of Americans who have 401(k) plans. Not many people realize this, but the Employee Retirement Income Security act, ERISA, does not require plan sponsors to provide participants with information on the level of fees that participants are charged by the various plans they have to choose between.

The number of people participating in defined contribution plans grows every year, and unfortunately, these plans are a bigger part of their nest egg as employers freeze their defined benefit plans. One of the key challenges as we move away from guaranteed benefits is making sure people have all the relevant information to help them decide which plan will best serve their needs. Recently, AARP conducted a survey in which it asked individuals with 401(k) plans if they even knew what they paid each year in fees. Only 17 percent of people asked said that they know what their fee levels were.

This is far from an academic matter. In fact, this could be disastrous for folks when they reach retirement. One person--who wishes to remain anonymous--recently shared with me a story that highlights what's at stake. She noticed one day that her 401(k) wasn't actually earning anything at all. After some examination, she found that the agent who set up the plan for the company received a fee of 2 percent annually for the first five years, reduced to .25 percent after that, paid by the employees and not the company. The investment firm charged a fee of 1.25 percent which they said was standard for companies with under $1 million in their 401ks. So, last year, she was paying 3.25 percent in fees and earning less than 4 percent from her money market fund. She didn't have a clue about the fees until she inquired after she realized she wasn't making any money on the fund.

So looking back at this AARP survey, of those 17 percent who said they knew what their fees were, 33 percent thought they weren't being charged any fees at all. Some companies will even tell people they are not being charged fees. While it is true that in some cases, employers pay fees, that is hardly the norm. And investment managers don't do their jobs for charity. These fees that people don't know about can have a big effect on what they end up with at retirement.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office recently estimated that a 45 year old with $20,000 in his 401(k) would have $70,555 at age 65 for his retirement, assuming he was getting a 6.5 percent return and only paying 0.5 percent in fees. But that figure decreases dramatically if the fees are increased by just a single percentage point, to 1.5 percent. At that figure the same individual, investing the same amount of money, would have only $58,400 for his retirement, or more than $12,000 less.

AARP took the GAO assumptions and created some additional examples. Consider this case: if a 35 year old invested $20,000 in a 401(k) plan over 30 years, paying 0.5 percent in fees, that individual would have $132,287 for retirement. But increase the fees to 1.5 percent, and the amount available for retirement is only $99,679--that is a 25 percent reduction in the account balance. Even if the fee only increased from 0.5 percent to 1 percent, the value of the retirement account would be reduced by $17,417, or a little over 13 percent over the 30-year period.

If you awoke one day to find that your bank account, or your retirement account, had declined in value by 25 percent, you would understandably be alarmed, and you would act quickly to fix the problem. But with high 401(k) fees, the reduction in benefits isn't immediately obvious. It happens slowly, over time, and often flies under people's radar screens because they are not told the level of fees they are paying, or they don't understand that some 401(k) plans charge far lower fees for providing the same amount of services. It is that problem--that information gap--that the Defined Contribution Fee Disclosure Act is designed to fix.

My bill would provide participants with easily understandable information about the fees that they are paying. This information will be provided to them before they pick which plans they want to invest in, and again, regularly, on their quarterly statements.

In addition, this bill does something even more important: it would require companies to disclose more information to plan sponsors. Right now, if you provide your workers with a 401(k) plan, you are required to act prudently and in their sole interest in your fiduciary duties. However, there are hidden fees that are sometimes not disclosed even to plan sponsors, and sometimes those sponsors also are not told about business arrangements between service providers to steer participants into investment options in which they have a stake, a classic conflict of interest.

To fix this, the bill would require 401(k) plan providers to disclose all fees and relationships between service providers to the people selecting the plan a company will ultimately offer. The bottom line is that we want to create a situation where companies are picking several good options for their employees that all have decent reliable returns and fair fees.

One thing my bill does not do is set a limit on fees that can be charged. As I have noted, high fees can make a real difference in account balances at retirement, but so can high returns, in a more positive direction, obviously. Sometimes, it is well worth paying higher fees if a small increase in fees will have a big effect on returns. In addition, some people want to purchase insurance products so that every month, they are buying a more secure piece of retirement. That is just fine, and my bill doesn't touch that. People who fully understand the real cost of a guaranteed return at retirement are the kind of people who appreciate, and will push for, more defined benefit plans. But they can't do that if they don't know what it costs.

The bottom line is that people need to be investing more, and more confidently, in the 401(k) plans they are being offered. This is especially critical in a world where defined benefit plans are increasingly being slashed and frozen. For a growing number of workers, their only source of retirement income is their 401(k).

Congress needs to focus more squarely on how we get workers to participate in the plans they have available, and what we can do to make sure the savings they grow in them are adequate. When people know they are being given all the facts in an easy-to-understand manner, they are more likely to contribute. And when the fiduciaries who are supposed to be looking out for them make sure all of their

options are good, they end up saving more money at the end of the day.

This bill is a win for companies who want to provide their workers with a secure retirement, it is a win for 401(k) providers who have been providing reasonable fees all along, and it is a win for every American who has one of these plans. My colleagues and I introducing this measure have worked with interested parties on every side of this issue to make sure we're taking into account everyone's views. We also intend to work closely with the Department of Labor on their proposed regulations on this issue. While we believe that Congress has an obligation to address this issue, if we can all work together to develop regulations that address this issue in a way that will truly help participants and beneficiaries get a good deal, I am certainly not opposed to getting this done administratively. I strongly encourage my colleagues to cosponsor this measure.

Mr. President, since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, more than 1.5 million of our servicemen and women have been sent to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other nations. We have mobilized more than 630,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves, including 92,000 who are on active duty right now.

These service men and women have courageously defended our country overseas, but tens of thousands of them have come home to find that they have lost their employment benefits or even their jobs, and the Government has failed to defend their rights.

Today, Senator Daniel Akaka and I are introducing legislation to guarantee that veterans won't have to wait years for the Government to act to restore their benefits or return to work.

Thirteen years ago, Congress enacted the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, specifically to protect our servicemembers when they return home. We understood that, to maintain strong focus and a strong National Guard and Reserves, servicemembers needed confidence that they could return to their civilian jobs when they came home from their tours of duty. That legislation was a clear promise that the Federal Government would step in and defend servicemembers who were wrongly denied their jobs or benefits. We pledged that the Department of Labor would investigate violations of the act, and that if employers refused to follow the law, the Attorney General would take employers to court to protect our servicemembers' rights.

Today, however, the administration has clearly broken that promise to enforce the law and get our veterans back to work.

Last month, during a Senate Committee hearing, I released a Department of Defense survey showing that for tens of thousands of veterans, their service to our country has cost them the salary they deserve, their health care, their pensions, or even their jobs. Among members of the Reserves and National Guard, nearly 11,000 were denied prompt reemployment. More than 22,000 lost seniority and rightful pay. Nearly 20,000 had their pensions reduced. More than 15,000 did not receive the training they needed to resume their former jobs. Nearly 11,000 did not get their health insurance back.

The problem is that employers aren't following the law, and Federal agencies aren't effectively enforcing it. Mr. President, 38 percent of servicemembers who asked the Department of Labor to defend their rights did not receive a prompt response. Servicemembers are forced to wait months or years even to find out whether the Government will agree to represent them and defend their rights. One veteran waited 7 years before the Department of Labor told him whether it would take his case to court. No veteran can afford to wait seven months to return to work or have his health insurance reinstated, let alone wait 7 years.

With these unbelievable delays, it is not surprising that 44 percent of servicemembers who asked the Department of Labor for help said that they were dissatisfied with the assistance they received. When servicemen and women hear about these delays, they ask themselves, ``Why should I even bother to ask for help.''

In fact, the Pentagon tells us that 77 percent of servicemembers whose rights are violated don't contact anyone to defend their rights. They simply give up. Nearly half of them say that they have no confidence that the Government will resolve their problems, or that it is just not worth the effort.

Even worse, a quarter of them don't even know where they can go for help. It is beyond dispute that the administration has broken its promise to help them.

Our veterans deserve better than this. They deserve to know that their Government is working as quickly as possible to get them back to work and restore their benefits.

The current law needs reform as well. It makes no sense to have four different agencies tracking the problems of our servicemembers in four different ways. We also need to know whether disabled veterans are being properly assisted in making their own difficult transition back to work.

It is time for the administration to keep its promise, and end the long delays for veterans who need help in defending their rights. The bill that Senator Akaka and I are introducing imposes timely and reasonable deadlines on Federal agencies to investigate complaints, to attempt to resolve them, and, if necessary, to refer them for litigation.

The legislation also makes the Federal enforcement of the law more transparent and responsive to the needs of veterans. It assures veterans that they won't have to wait years for an answer about whether they will receive the help they deserve.

By imposing timely deadlines on the Federal agencies, we are also stepping up the pressure on employers that violate the rights of our brave soldiers. With these new deadlines, employers won't be able to drag their heels as the Department of Labor spends months or years investigating violations. They will know that they have to settle each veteran's case quickly and fairly, or else face the U.S. Government in court.

The legislation also implements a number of reforms recommended by the Government Accountability Office--reforms that have received bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. In particular, our bill requires agencies to gather and report information on these cases in a uniform manner, so that we can understand trends and better address the needs of each servicemember. Agencies will also be required to report on cases involving veterans with disabilities, so that we have accurate information on the reemployment problems of our wounded soldiers.

Enacting this legislation alone obviously won't end the job discrimination that too many servicemembers face when they come home. But it will certainly improve the assistance they receive in obtaining the help they have earned and deserve.

Our legislation has the support of the Nation's largest veterans' organization, the American Legion, which emphasizes that the ``enforcement of veterans' employment and reemployment rights . . . can only be achieved through aggressive oversight and timely investigation.'' This legislation, the American Legion says, will ``strengthen veterans' employment and reemployment rights'' by imposing ``timely, realistic deadlines on Federal agencies to process'' their claims. We are proud to have the American Legion's support for this legislation.

We know we can never truly repay our veterans for their immense sacrifices. They have fought hard for our country, and it is up to us to fight just as hard for them when they return home to the heroes' welcome they so justly deserve. An important part of that welcome is keeping the promise that we made to them to protect their employment rights when they return.

That is what this legislation seeks to do, and I urge my colleagues to enact it as soon as possible.