Jobs Now Act of 2019

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the resolution (H. Res. 327) encouraging greater public-private sector collaboration to promote financial literacy for students and young adults, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 327, a bipartisan resolution we introduced in April in honor of Financial Literacy Month.

I would like to start by thanking my friend Congressman French Hill from Arkansas, who should truly be considered as an original cosponsor of this resolution for working on this legislation with me.

The aim of this resolution is simple but important. It encourages collaboration between the public and private sector to promote financial literacy for students. It emphasizes the importance of financial literacy for consumers of all ages, and it supports efforts of Federal agencies to expand financial education resources.

This year alone, approximately 15.1 million students will be in grades 9 through 12 and almost 20 million students will be enrolled in colleges and universities.

That is a lot of young people who will soon be entering a complex financial marketplace where they will have to quickly make important financial decisions. These include decisions about paying for college, credit cards, financing a car or a home purchase, preparing for unexpected emergencies, and saving for retirement.

However, without an understanding of basic financial concepts, these young people will not be well equipped to make these decisions.

At a time when student loan balances stand at $1.5 trillion and a majority of private workers have access to defined contribution plans and not traditional pension benefits, it is even more important for young people and workers to be financially literate.

Part of the problem is that too few schools incorporate financial education into their curriculum. According to the Council for Economic Education, only a third of States require high school students to take a course in personal finance. In those States, most schools teach the subject as one portion of another course of study--such as math, economics, or social studies--while only five States require a semester-long, standalone personal finance course.

Studies show that financial illiteracy carries significant cost. Consumers who fail to understand the concept of

compound interest spend more on transaction fees, run up bigger debts, and incur higher interest rates on loans.

We also need to work on making financial literacy tools available for everyone. Unfortunately, levels of financial literacy are lower among the less educated minorities and women.

Just 19 percent of high school graduates possess basic financial knowledge and skills. Perhaps even more troubling, according to a survey by the Consumer Federation of America and the Financial Planning Association, 21 percent of respondents, including 38 percent of those with income below $25,000, reported that winning the lottery was ``the most practical strategy for accumulating several hundred thousand dollars for their own retirement.''

This is a tragedy in the making, and we can do better.

While Americans are not expected to manage their own legal cases or medical conditions, they are expected to manage their own finances.

We teach our children to wear seat belts. We teach them to say no to drugs. We should also be teaching them the financial literacy skills that they will need to successfully navigate the financial marketplace.

We want to give young people and all consumers the tools they need to survive. One of the ways in which we can do that is by having Federal agencies partner with schools, local and State governments, workplaces, community organizations, nonprofits, and financial service providers.

Whether it is giving students immersive opportunities to see how money and banking work in the real world or helping train and equip teachers with the curriculum and materials they need to succeed in the classroom, Federal agencies should be bold and innovative in their approaches and leverage the ways in which technology can be used to further these laudable goals.

We cannot afford to have future generations of Americans grow up without learning these fundamental skills. For that reason, I urge all my colleagues to support this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. David Scott).

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

I would like to again thank my colleague, Congressman Hill, for his assistance in support of this resolution, and I urge my colleagues to join us in supporting this important resolution to show Congress' commitment to ensuring our Nation's students have the essential financial literacy skills they need to thrive and excel in today's economy.

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

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

I thank Madam Speaker for the opportunity to speak on this important resolution, H. Res. 327, and I want to thank my good friend from Illinois, Dr. Foster, for his passion on this measure to benefit, particularly, the young people in this country.

Certainly, as the most prominent Ph.D. in the House of Representatives and a pioneering entrepreneur, he knows the value of financial literacy.

And I am proud, as a former community banker and investment manager, somebody who dealt with families, their kids, and older Americans for 30 years in finance, to partner on this very important promotion of financial literacy for students and young adults.

It is wonderful that it is a bipartisan effort by our committee.

And it is truly unfortunate, Madam Speaker, that only 25 States require high school students to take a financial literacy class in order to graduate. As a result, many children and adolescents grow into adults who don't know how to properly save, spend, and budget.

I am proud that Arkansas is one of those 25 States, Madam Speaker, as we enacted our requirement back in 2005. But, going back even further to 1962, Arkansas, through the leadership of Bessie Moore, a remarkable educator in our State, created something called Economics Arkansas, which, every summer, puts on financial literacy training for all of our teachers, K through 12, so that they understand to put financial literacy in all the classrooms.

It was a lot of fun last week when we were in the district to go to Robinson Senior High School in Little Rock and see them compete for the Stock Market Game, which is a major component in financial literacy training, through Economics Arkansas.

So not everyone, every student is as lucky as an Arkansan, because two-thirds of Americans can't pass a financial literacy test, Madam Speaker. Forty-four percent do not have enough savings to cover a $400 emergency, and 33 percent have not saved for their retirement.

Financial illiteracy has broader economic costs, higher debt, limited savings. For many, this limits their homeownership. This means they don't have a stable retirement. And for many of our young adults, this critical knowledge creates the burden that we have seen in student loan lending in this country where families are not treating higher education debt as seriously as they treat buying that first house.

Why is that, Madam Speaker? It is because of the lack, in my view, of financial literacy at the high school level, at our admissions offices in colleges, and that is why it was terrific, bipartisan, that this time last year in the last Congress, in September, we passed, with over 400 votes in this House, a measure that requires financial literacy training for students seeking a student loan, for students accepting a Pell grant. That is the kind of good work that this House has been doing.

I want to again thank my friend, Mr. Foster, for his work. As we close Financial Literacy Month, I can't think of a better topic, and I can't think of a better friend to share that work with.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close. I have no other speakers on this important matter.

I just want to continue to thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and our lead sponsor, Dr. Foster, for his thoughtful elevation of the importance of financial literacy for all of our students and their families.

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

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

The first thing I want to say is thank you to Mr. Foster and thank you to Mr. Hill for providing sterling, bipartisan leadership on this, Madam Speaker, what I feel is one of the most pressing needs facing our Nation today, and that is to equip our young people with the financial education, the financial acumen of navigating what is becoming even a greater, more complex financial system.

Madam Speaker, let me just bring this glaring statistic to drive home this point to you, the Congress, and the American people.

According to the Council for Economic Education, just 17 States out of the 50 States of our great Nation require students to take even one course in personal finance. Just 22 States require high school students to take a course in just basic economics, and then that course is interloped into others and not even in and of itself.

Yet the financial decisions that our young people are asked to make are immense, carrying lifelong consequences to consider in the decision, first of all, of whether to go to college or not, how to go to college, how to pay for it, and how to pay for the increasing costly debt for this college education.

Consider the challenges that can come from balancing a starting or beginning wage against the student loan debt or saving for retirement. Or consider many of the basic kitchen table choices that families must make each and every day to put food on the table, to buy or not to buy an automobile, just the simple electricity bill. They would have to make definite choices.

Consider the advantages that are afforded to consumers who do have access to credit, how important that is. How do you acquire that access, and how do you maintain that access for credit?

We are, indeed, a financial consumer economy, but we are basically a credit-based economy, and our young people must gravitate and be able to grapple with this in a responsible way.

In our increasingly complex financial marketplace, the value of financial education has never been higher. Personal education is badly needed.

To reduce debt, we would look at the debt that so many of our young people start out with year after year even finishing college. How do you manage that? How do you make those choices?

Financial literacy is the key to financial security not just of the individual, because if we don't have financial security for the people of our Nation, we don't have financial security for the future of this great Nation. That is why this is one of the most important issues that this Congress faces today.

I am so proud to join with my Republican friend and my Democratic friend in showing the bipartisan way that we must go to solve this problem and make sure that this generation and every generation coming after them have the best financial education.