Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 134 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this concurrent resolution is to urge President George W. Bush to carefully reconsider his current policy goal of privatizing social security.

ILWU Local 142 testified in support of this measure. The Hawaii Alliance for Retired Americans opposed this measure.

The concern of your Committee is that social security was established as a part of a "social safety net". It was never meant to replace income upon retirement, but to ensure that people who have productively contributed to society through their working years are not left in their old age without any means to sustain themselves.

Your Committee agrees that working people should voluntarily supplement their retirement income when possible by investing in private retirement savings plans such as 401K, IRA, mutual funds, and other types of supplemental retirement programs.

Your Committee has great concerns about diverting part of the Social Security Trust Fund into the stock market, where regardless of reassurances, a higher risk level exists. Any failure in a "private account" system, in the end, will fall back on the Federal or state government to resolve through some additional program.

It is clear that when dealing with the Social Security Trust Fund that the best approach is a "risk averse" one that will ensure that the trust fund is solvent. Your Committee believes we should not take unnecessary steps that jeopardize the senior years of the hard working women and men who pay into the Social Security system.

Finally, your Committee agrees that the Social Security Trust Fund does need to be shored up to ensure solvency, but there is greater concern over the solvency of the Medicare system which has widely been reported as an even more urgent problem. Your Committee urges the President of the United States and the Congress to address this far more urgent crisis before being concerned about a shortfall that is 36 years away and can be addressed without dismantling the entire Social Security system. Certainly Social Security should be addressed and all prudent options should be on the table, but the problems surrounding Medicare are far more pressing.

Your Committee has amended this concurrent resolution by:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 134, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as H.C.R. No. 134, H.D. 1.