Supporting the goals and ideals of National Life Insurance Awareness Month.

I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner) for yielding me the time, and I also want to thank my colleague from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) for managing this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support House Resolution 16, which offers support to the goals and ideals of National Life Insurance Awareness Month as recognized this September. I want to thank my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kanjorski), for introducing this resolution with me for the sixth year. During previous years the House has passed identical resolutions by voice vote or with as many as 412 ``yes'' votes. This year's resolution has 59 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle.

I also want to thank the gentleman from New York, Chairman Edolphus Towns, and the gentleman from California, Darrell Issa, for moving this resolution through the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. And last, I acknowledge and thank Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska for introducing a companion resolution in the Senate, Senate Resolution 211, making this a bipartisan, bicameral effort.

Mr. Speaker, life insurance too often is thought of only when it's too late. How many times have we heard friends or loved ones sadly reflecting that the deceased had no life insurance or had too little life insurance? Today, only four in 10 adults in America own individual life insurance policies. And among those who do have life insurance, the amount is often too small to safeguard the financial future of their loved ones. Due to insufficient coverage, many families, upon losing loved ones, often are forced to work extra jobs or longer hours, borrow money, or move to less desirable housing because there was no insurance.

House Resolution 16 calls on the Nation to observe the month of September as Life Insurance Awareness Month, and the issue has been elevated by a broad coalition of providers and advocates, including members of the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, and the American Council of Life Insurers. Our collective goal for the month is to make families more aware of their life insurance needs and encourage them to seek professional advice, as well as take the actions necessary to provide financial security for their loved ones.

Mr. Speaker, many of my colleagues on both the Financial Services Committee and the Education and Labor Committee, especially my colleague from Texas, Ruben Hinojosa, and I have been working very hard to increase the level of financial literacy across the Nation. We recognize that by empowering consumers with the knowledge and understanding of how financial products work and how they can work towards financial security, we are taking a critical step that will help protect consumers from unexpected financial hardships and prepare them to succeed in today's complex financial marketplace. It is my hope that recognizing Life Insurance Awareness Month will help motivate Americans to seek information about the benefits of life insurance so that the premature death of a loved one does not bring with it economic hardships that too often accompany tragedy.

I ask my colleagues to join me in support of the goals and ideals of this year's National Life Insurance Awareness Month.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 16) supporting the goals and ideals of National Life Insurance Awareness Month.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

I now yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I am pleased to present House Resolution 16 for consideration. This resolution expresses our support for the goals and ideals of National Life Insurance Awareness Month.

House Resolution 16 was introduced on January 6, 2009, by my colleague, Representative Judy Biggert of Illinois, and favorably reported out of the Oversight Committee on September 24 by unanimous consent. In addition, this legislation enjoys the bipartisan support of over 50 Members of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, the life insurance industry estimates that approximately 68 million Americans lack sufficient life insurance coverage to safeguard the financial security of their families. Accordingly, House Resolution 16 seeks to increase the awareness regarding the importance of life insurance products to the financial security of American families by supporting the goals and ideals of National Life Insurance Awareness Month.

While preparing for the inevitable may be a difficult task, it is a task that we should all take time to complete. Life insurance products are intended to better insure the financial security and stability of our loved ones by allowing them to meet impending and future financial obligations in the event of a death, disability or other uncertainty in their family. Given the importance of life insurance to sound financial planning, I would encourage all families to review their financial situations and consider life insurance products as a possible safeguard against the financial impact of an unforeseen event.

I'd like to thank the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kanjorski) for offering this informative measure, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting House Resolution 16.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I will simply urge my colleagues to support this measure offered and sponsored by Mrs. Biggert of Illinois and also Mr. Kanjorski of Pennsylvania.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, because I was unavoidably detained with constituents, I would like to acknowledge that my vote would have been ``aye'' in roll call vote No. 737, the Medicare Premium Fairness Act, on Thursday, September 24, 2009.

Likewise, I was unavoidably detained in a meeting with the Vice President, and I would like to indicate that my votes today on passage of H.R. 905, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve Boundary Modification Act, roll call vote No. 740, would have been ``aye''; H. Res. 16, supporting the goals and ideals of the National Life Insurance Awareness Month, roll call vote 741, would have been ``aye''; and adoption of motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 2997, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010, roll call vote 742, would have been ``no.''

Madam Speaker, I was unable to cast votes on the following legislative measures on September 29, 2009. If I were present for rollcall votes, I would have voted Yea on each of the following:

Roll 740, September 29, 2009: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended:

H.R. 905, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve Boundary Modification Act.

Roll 741, September 29, 2009: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Agree: H. Res. 16, Supporting the goals and ideals of National Life Insurance Awareness Month.

Roll 742, September 29, 2009: On Motion to Instruct Conferees: H.R. 2997, Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, unfortunately, I missed recorded votes on the House floor on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on rollcall vote No. 740 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H.R. 905), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 741 (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 16), ``aye'' on rollcall vote No. 742 (on motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 2997).