Mr. President, I rise to speak about an amendment that I have filed, but will not call up today in the interest of moving this legislation forward, with regard to Title V of S. 1753, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) bill. I would like to thank my colleagues, Senators Sarbanes, Enzi, Stabenow, and Corzine, for their diligent work on Title V to establish a Financial Literacy and Education Commission. This Commission will help tremendously toward coordinating the myriad efforts of Federal agencies to increase financial literacy in this country and creating a comprehensive national strategy as an important blueprint to follow.

As a part of this effort, Mr. President, I feel it important to emphasize the need for public awareness about the importance of financial and economic literacy. My amendment is similar to a bill introduced in the other body by the gentleman from California, Representative David Dreier, and cosponsored by several colleagues on both sides of the aisle, that would establish a pilot national public service multimedia campaign to enhance the state of financial literacy in this country. It would authorize $3 million over three years for this purpose.

My amendment differs in that it coordinates this public service multimedia campaign with the Federal Commission created by S. 1753 and the national strategy that would be produced by the Commission. It would authorize the Commission to work in collaboration with an entity accomplished in public service campaigns that has secured private sector funds to supplement federal funding and community organizations well-qualified by virtue of their experience in the field of financial literacy and education. My amendment also requires that performance measures be developed to measure the effectiveness of such a public service multimedia campaign, via positive changes in behavior with respect to personal finance. It is paramount to be able to assess the effectiveness of the campaign and other financial literacy efforts so that we understand what works and does not work, and can replicate our successes into the future.

Mr. President, I will continue to work with my colleagues on the Banking Committee and their counterparts in the other body to include the language in my amendment in FCRA legislation during their negotiations following Senate passage of S. 1753. It is important that we continue our coordinated efforts to ensure that Americans are financially literate, which will encourage better decisionmaking by individuals, stronger families, better-functioning markets, and a more secure future for our nation.