Congressional Savings and Ownership Caucus

To build a policymaker consensus around the goal of broadening asset ownership, New America’s Asset Building Program proposed and facilitated the establishment of a bi-partisan, bi-cameral Congressional Savings and Ownership Caucus in February 2005.

This forum brings together key Members of Congress, their staffs, and leading outside experts to discuss -- in a non-partisan, forward-looking manner -- recent research findings, policy options, and potential legislative opportunities to advance the goal of expanding savings and asset ownership in America.

The Congressional Savings and Ownership Caucus is Co-Chaired by Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), Rep. Tom Petri (R-WI), Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) in the 111th Congress.

To learn more about the Caucus and the activities of the Caucus, please click here.

Resources for Policymakers

At a time when debt has overloaded the American economy, saving money at the household level has become more important than ever. It is critical to have accurate information about who saves, how much, and when. That's why the Asset Building Program has put together a series of fact sheets to help provide quick answers to questions about savings, debt and American households.

• To learn more about the state of savings in American households, please click here to read our savings fact sheet.
• To learn more about the state of debt in American households, please click here to read our debt fact sheet.

External Resources

Numerous other organizations perform excellent work in the field of asset building, here are some recently issued reports and websites containing useful facts and information about asset building, saving, and economic security in the United States: 

• The Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts has recently produced their own fact sheet about the state of economic mobility in the US.
• The Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University recently released their "Asset Security and Opportunity Index."
• The Urban Institute recently released a brief on asset insecurity, "Are Americans Prepared for Financial Emergencies?"
• The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) issued their State-by-State look asset policy, "The 2009-2010 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard."
• The Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) maintains a helpful set of "Fast Facts" that often deal with issues of saving, debt, and retirement security.

• Events
• Press

Events

Advancing Economic Mobility Through Savings

"This is going to be a different recovery than the past, because Americans are going to have to save more." -Tim Geithner, US Secretary of the Treasury Saving is a key to economic mobility as well as economic recovery. Despite the critical importance of savings, most Americans, especially those with low incomes, are not saving enough. Federal policy encourages saving for the wealthy, but for low-income Americans saving is often discouraged and the path to self-sufficiency is made more difficult.

Start: 11/19/2009 - 1:00pm

End: 11/19/2009 - 2:00pm

Beyond Stimulus

While the President signs into law a $152 billion stimulus package to jumpstart the economy, millions of Americans continue to rack up consumer debt, watch their home values slide, and worry about their futures with little to no savings. In fact, even with stimulus checks on the way to promote consumption, Americans are focusing on the need to rein in their debt and save more. A recent Harris Interactive poll found that when it comes to using the… more

Start: 02/26/2008 - 9:00am

End: 02/26/2008 - 11:00am

Beyond the Mortgage Meltdown

The current -- and predicted future -- turmoil in the mortgage market highlights an important challenge to the American dream of homeownership: how to make certain that those who enter into homeownership are able to sustain that status, protecting family stability and building equity in a critical asset. Thirty years ago, those who owned homes had fixed rate mortgages and substantial equity, and foreclosure was a rare event. However, many Americans were denied the opportunity to… more

Start: 09/20/2007 - 12:00pm

End: 09/20/2007 - 1:30pm

To Save, or Not to Save?

This event is co-hosted by AARP, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, CFED, National Disability Institute, The Retirement Security Project, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, and World Institute on Disabilities.

As more and more Americans are expected to save for their own futures, millions of low-income individuals get conflicting messages from their government: Save, and don't save. Over the last decade a consensus has been emerging among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners about the importance of… more

Start: 07/26/2007 - 12:00pm

End: 07/26/2007 - 1:30pm

Low-Cost Ideas to Promote New Savings and Asset Ownership

Whether the objective is to promote retirement security, improve educational attainment, provide a financial cushion for life transitions, or increase national savings, the need to increase household savings is vitally clear. As is well known, the personal savings rate in the United States has been falling for nearly two decades and became negative two years ago, a level not seen since the Great Depression.

In an environment of large budget deficits and bulging entitlement obligations, little revenue can be sacrificed… more

Start: 05/01/2007 - 9:00am

End: 05/01/2007 - 10:45am

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Press

Headline	Date
New America Foundation Commends California State Controller John Chiang's Financial Literacy Initiative	April 2, 2008
Ray Boshara, Phil Longman in Houston Chronicle | "Thrift is it in 2008"	January 12, 2008
Detroit Free Press Quotes Reid Cramer on AutoSave	December 10, 2006

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