To rename section 219(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleague from Dallas, Texas (Mr. Johnson) for his leadership on this matter.

This spring in another part of Texas in San Antonio, with the committed leadership of Katy Flato, we had our first-ever Bexar County edition of the Texas Book Festival. Among the many authors who were celebrated there, an active presence to make this book festival a success, was our United States Senator and New York Times best-selling author, Kay Bailey Hutchison, who presented her new book, ``Unflinching Courage: Pioneering Women Who Shaped Texas.''

In this book, she takes a look at other women who have made Texas and this Nation what it is today. She tells some incredible stories from Jane Long, who's often called the Mother of Texas, and her delivery of her own baby on a beach, to the tale of Margaret Houston, the wife of the hero of Texas, Sam Houston, who reportedly had an operation to remove a tumor, bit on a silver coin, survived and had six more children.

Senator Hutchison was a pioneer in her own right. She graduated, as my colleague said, from the University of Texas School of Law in 1967 when the number of women in the graduating class was in single digits.

As the first Republican woman to be elected to the Texas House of Representatives, she served there and in the Texas Constitutional Convention where I had an opportunity to get to know her as another member of that convention, as well as her husband, Ray Hutchison, who served with distinction in the House of Representatives. She is to date our only woman to have represented Texas in the United States Senate.

We're grateful for her long service, her willingness to work with Members of both parties, and in San Antonio we're particularly grateful, as well, for her service as it relates to the San Antonio River and the expansion of the River Walk.

When she first came to the Senate in 1993, she began working on legislation to help women take charge of their own futures, and one part of that is the Spousal IRA. The bill was the product of her own personal experience. When she married Ray, she learned that she could no longer contribute $2,000 to her retirement annually, but was limited to $250.

Early on, she approached Senator Barbara Mikulski about becoming the Democratic lead sponsor on the Spousal IRA bill. Together, Senator Hutchison, working in a bipartisan manner with Senator Mikulski, got the legislation approved as a part of the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996.

The Spousal IRA that became law is an important tax benefit for stay- at-home spouses. It allows the stay-at-home spouse to make a full IRA contribution to the stay-at-home spouse's own IRA, even if a husband or wife has made a full contribution to the working spouse's IRA.

At a time when too many people are not saving enough to provide a secure requirement, this measure helps many contribute to ensure that they have a full retirement. Under the rules in place before, that limitation would have been a very nominal $250. Under Senator Hutchison's legislation, the contribution can now go up to $5,500, a big contribution, each year.

So I think it's very appropriate that we honor Senator Hutchison here with the naming that is proposed.

I reserve the balance of my time at this point.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, to close briefly, last fall Senator Cornyn hosted a memorable bipartisan dinner honoring Senator Hutchison appropriately in the LBJ Room here in the Capitol, where all of us who are gathered here today, and a number of our colleagues, joined in honoring Senator Hutchison. At about the same time, Senator Mikulski introduced a resolution in the Senate to accomplish the same objection as this resolution. I hope the Senate will act promptly to approve this legislation. It has strong bipartisan support because this is an important measure to ensure more retirement security provided by a Texas leader of which those of us of both parties can take pride.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, Chairman Johnson, thank you for your leadership on this issue and, Mr. Doggett, for your eloquent support.

When American families are fortunate enough to have children, they often face an important decision: Can they afford to have one parent stay at home to care for the children or is it financially necessary that both parents continue to work outside the home? If they choose to have one parent stay home, it is often a great financial sacrifice that affects not only their day-to-day living but their retirement security as well.

I believe the government should support their decision by encouraging them to save for their retirement by using the Spousal IRA tax provision which became law in 1996. This provision brings a measure of equality to the Code and allows parents to contribute to IRA retirement accounts whether they work outside the home or not.

While the Spousal IRA provision was included in the Contract for America and the Contract with the American Family, it only exists today because of our dear friend and former Texas Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Years ago, she recognized the unfairness of the Tax Code to those moms and dads who chose to stay home with their children, even if it meant missing out on the usual tax incentives enjoyed by those with outside jobs who were putting money away in a traditional IRA as a nest egg. Well, stay-at-home parents didn't have that IRA option, so Senator Hutchison went to work to balance the scales a little for those parents.

I remember Senator Hutchison for years tirelessly crisscrossing the State of Texas and lobbying her colleagues in the House and the Senate for a spousal IRA because it was the right thing to do for our families and families across the country. She never stopped raising awareness of this inequity and never gave up. I think all of us would agree that ``never giving up'' is a Kay Bailey Hutchison hallmark.

She also turned her incredible energy to getting it passed in Congress. She

was finally and justifiably successful in 1996, working across the aisle with leaders like Dick Armey and the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Bill Archer; but also signed by and supported by President Clinton.

Since that time, millions of American children have benefited from their stay-at-home parents, and their parents have benefited from Senator Hutchison's magnificent work to bring some retirement fairness to these wonderful families.

Therefore, I join with my colleagues to urge them to vote in support of renaming the Spousal IRA section of the Tax Code the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA. It is an honor much reserved for the one person most responsible for its existence.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2289) to rename section 219(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under consideration.

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

Today we are considering legislation to rename the Spousal IRA the ``Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA,'' and I want to thank my colleagues from both sides of the aisle for cosponsoring this bill.

Mr. Speaker, a fellow Texan, an extraordinary woman and the first Texas female United States Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison established during her time in the Senate a long and distinguished record of service to the great people of Texas and to Americans across our Nation. A fitting example of the Senator's service is her successful effort to help families save for retirement.

Back in 1993, Senator Hutchison first led the effort to change an unfair tax rule that limited the ability of homemakers to fully contribute to their own personal retirement accounts known as IRAs. At that time, homemakers could only put aside $250 in an IRA as opposed to $2,000, the maximum allowed for the working spouse. In response, Senator Hutchison introduced legislation allowing homemakers to fully contribute to their own accounts.

In 1996, Congress passed legislation that included the Senator's proposal to do just that. As a result, homemakers are no longer penalized for undertaking the important work of raising a family when it comes to saving for retirement. As the Senator said back in 1996:

There is no question in my mind that the work done inside

the home is as much a part of the American family, if not

more important to the American family, than the work done

outside the home.

I can't think of a better way to recognize the now former Senator's efforts to make it easier for families to achieve retirement security than by renaming the Spousal IRA the ``Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady), a member of the Ways and Means Committee and chairman of the Subcommittee on Health.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Doggett, for his words.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill in honor of Senator Hutchison's commonsense effort to make it easier for families to save for retirement.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. It is a pleasure to join my friends from Texas on the floor today to honor Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and the work that she did with creating the Spousal IRA.

Look, back in the 1990s, I was just a regular guy practicing medicine back home in Texas. What did I know about this stuff? Well, not much. But what I did know was that for the 15 years that I had been in private practice, my wife and I had shared our contribution to our IRAs every year. That meant each of us was able to deposit $1,100 every year into the IRA account.

Well, I've got to tell you, it's pretty frustrating to try to save for retirement when every year your contribution is limited to that rather austere amount. So it was a very big day, and I remember that day when we actually both were able to make the full contribution to our IRA accounts, and it was because of the hard work done by Senator Hutchison.

She never forgot her constituents back in Texas. She never forgot women--yes, women in the workforce, but also those women who were exercising their option to spend all of their energies raising their children and raising their families. It was a great day for Texas, for Texas constituents when that tax bill was passed, and we are very grateful to Senator Hutchison for her leadership. It is appropriate that we honor her tonight with the naming of the Spousal IRA in her honor.

Mr. Speaker, its a pleasure to recognize my colleague and friend, former Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, for her efforts to help women. Her many contributions include her success in changing federal law to help women save for retirement. Her efforts expanded the availability of Individual Retirement Accounts for women, regardless of their family or work status, to set aside money for retirement.

Senator Hutchison's success in changing the tax code to help stay-at- home spouses underscores the family values that are critical to our nation. Americans should not be limited by federal law when they work at home to raise children and help their families.

Senator Hutchison deserves recognition for her support of American families. I was a cosponsor of H.R. 2289, to rename section 219(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA. I applaud Senator Hutchison and thank her for the exceptional work she has done on behalf of the State of Texas.