Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii) welcomed the inaugural meeting of the Financial Literacy and Education Commission, which was convened this morning by Treasury Secretary John Snow at the Department of the Treasury. Secretary Snow was joined by Chairman Alan Greenspan of the Federal Reserve and representatives from several other federal agencies with programs in financial and economic literacy.
Senator Akaka worked closely with Senators Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and other colleagues to include language establishing the Commission in Title V of H.R. 2622, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, and requiring the Commission to develop a national financial literacy and education strategy. H.R. 2622 was signed into law (P.L. 108-159) on December 4, 2003. The measure reauthorizes and expands the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to provide consumers with stronger protections against identity theft and greater access to their credit report information.
The Commission's focus includes basic personal income and household money management and planning skills, such as how to create budgets, initiate savings plans, and make strategic investment decisions for education, retirement, home ownership, wealth building, or other savings goals. It will also look to increase awareness of the availability and significance of credit reports and scores, improve the development and distribution of multilingual financial literacy and education materials, and promote efforts to help the "unbanked," or those who are not connected to mainstream financial services and as a result may be subjected to unnecessary fees and financial products that carry more risk. The Commission will also establish and maintain a Web site and toll-free hotline for those seeking information about financial literacy and education, and coordinate public awareness efforts with a national financial literacy multimedia campaign.
"With an array of economic and financial literacy products and programs sponsored by the Federal government, it is important that the Commission move forward on a national strategy that will coordinate these parallel efforts. I have high expectations for progress by the Commission over the coming year and am encouraged by the high-level participation of nearly all of the agencies that are a part of the panel," Akaka said. "We must continue efforts to provide Americans access to necessary tools that will empower them to make sound financial decisions."
