Aloha, thank you Bob [Bob Duvall, National Council on Economic Education] for that kind introduction. I welcome all of our distinguished speakers, exhibitors, and conference participants to the Second Annual Economic and Financial Literacy Conference. Mahalo nui loa to the Hawaii Council on Economic Education for organizing this conference, particularly Chairperson Jeanne Skog, Executive Director Kristine Castagnaro, and Dr. Sumner LeCroix.

I am delighted to see all of you here at our second annual Economic and Financial Literacy Conference. For those of you who participated in last year's conference, I would like to thank you once again for making that conference a great success, and for adding to the momentum we created by forming a state coalition, recruiting others to support the cause, and hosting many other activities that are improving financial literacy in Hawaii.

We have certainly made good progress in improving economic and financial literacy over the last year. I would like to start from the national perspective, as a reminder that all of our efforts here in Hawaii are in concert with, and contribute to, a major movement underway in the country. You know that an idea is taking hold if disparate things come together and coordinated efforts gain momentum.

Since our first conference last August, I worked with my colleagues in the Senate and House to establish a federal, interagency Financial Literacy and Education Commission, which convened in January, 2004, to develop a national strategy to improve financial literacy and education in the U.S. Many federal agencies are working to improve financial literacy and have engaged in innovative programs to better inform students, consumers, and investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission has been extremely creative in its efforts to protect investors despite being challenged with limited resources. I am pleased that we are joined today by Susan Wyderko, Director of Investment Education at the SEC. The Federal Reserve, U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension, FDIC, and many other agencies also have financial education programs for their various constituencies.

So far, the Commission has established an online clearinghouse that will serve as an umbrella resource for anyone searching for savings, investing, homebuying, or other types of federal financial education resources. You can review their Web Site, www.mymoney.gov. The Commission is also working to establish a toll-free hotline that refers people to the appropriate federal resources. The Commission is working on the development of a national strategy for financial education. This strategy is meant to reduce duplication and improve efficiency among federal financial literacy programs, and should involve input from state and local, for-profit and non-profit entities. I encourage anyone who has ideas to contribute to this effort to share them with the Commission.

This year, the Senate passed my resolution that designated April 2004 as Financial Literacy Month. In addition, we held the second Financial Literacy Day on the Hill. We had representatives from federal agencies, nonprofits, and financial service providers exhibit their programs, services, and products to promote financial literacy. I also want to commend the Hawaii State Legislature for establishing April as Financial Literacy for Youth Month in Hawaii.

Although there is more attention being paid to the issue of financial and economic literacy, recent studies indicate that we have much more work to do. The 2004 Economic Literacy Survey of Hawaii's Public Schools Seniors indicated that 71 percent of students did not know the definition of budget deficit. Sixty-one percent of students did not understand how inflation affects their purchasing power. Unfortunately, only 22.5 percent of Hawaii's public high school seniors enrolled in an economic course in the 2002-2003 school year. This is down from 49 percent in the 1998-1999 school year. Our students are entering the workforce unprepared to meet the financial situations that they will face.

Rising health care costs and insurance premiums, increases in gasoline prices, and the lack of affordable housing have contributed to making the lives of working families more difficult as they strain to meet their day-to-day needs. The ability of families to meet their increasing financial obligations is hampered by their significant debt burdens, particularly credit card debt, and by predatory lending practices such as refund anticipation loans. A lack of financial literacy makes it harder to deal with the difficult decisions they are confronted with daily. Personal bankruptcies nearly doubled in the past decade, including more than 1.6 million people who filed for personal bankruptcy in fiscal year 2003.

We have been working on a number of legislative measures and programs intended to improve the financial knowledge of people at different stages of their lives. Our efforts to fund the Excellence in Economics Education Act were successful in FY04. $1.5 million was provided to begin the implementation of the Act. The EEE Act is intended to improve economic and financial literacy through the classroom. I have been working to obtain continued funding for the EEE Act for FY 2005. As reported by the Senate Appropriations Committee, the FY05 appropriations bill for Labor, HHS, and Education includes $1.5 million for the program. I will continue to work to ensure continued funding for the EEE Act when I return to Washington in Mid-November to complete action on FY 05 spending measures.

In addition, I also introduced S. 1968, the Financial Literacy in Higher Education Act, in preparation for the Higher Education Act reauthorization. The legislation includes financial and economic education and counseling as allowable activities within existing programs such as TRIO, GEAR-UP and minority-serving institutions. It also proposes a pilot program involving annual credit counseling and personal financial literacy courses. The reasons for these and other provisions in the bill are simple. Many students start college with little understanding of economic concepts like supply and demand or benefits versus costs, or personal finance concepts like money management or the importance of maintaining good credit history. The result is that college students are not effectively evaluating credit alternatives, managing debt, and preparing for long-term financial goals. I will work to move this legislation forward, whenever the Higher Education Act reauthorization proceeds.

I also introduced S. 2475, the Credit Card Minimum Payment Warning Act. My legislation will make very clear what costs consumers incur if they make only the minimum payments on their credit cards. The personalized information consumers will receive for each of their credit card accounts will help them to make informed choices about the payments that they choose to make towards their balance. The bill also requires that credit card companies provide useful information so that people can develop strategies to eliminate credit card debt and have access to a toll-free number so that consumers can access trustworthy credit counselors.

Finally, I introduced the Taxpayer Abuse Prevention Act to prevent the dilution of Earned Income Tax Credit benefits by refund anticipation loans and to expand access to mainstream financial service providers, such as banks and credit unions. One provision would require that low-and moderate-income taxpayers be permitted to open a low-cost bank or credit union account through the use of tax forms. I also have been working to establish a federal program to link tax preparation services for low-income taxpayers with the establishment of bank and credit union accounts.

I look forward to hearing about the financial literacy activities you have been engaged in since the last conference and your plans to improve economic and financial literacy in Hawaii. Through our discussions today, we will be able to better coordinate federal and state efforts to increase financial literacy in Hawaii. We have much more work to do. We all must continue to work together to make sure that our students, consumers, and residents of Hawaii are able to make informed financial decisions. In addition, it will be very important to evaluate the effectiveness of our efforts. We need to be able to measure the outcomes, particularly among our students, of our educational efforts.

Again, mahalo for attending the conference today and for all of your efforts to improve the financial skills of our students, consumers, small business owners, and citizens. I look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure that we have a financially literate society, because financial literacy is the key to financial security for America's and Hawaii's families and our keiki.

Aloha kakou.