"Congress owes it to the employees who have lost so much – as well as to future investors — to take a close look at the rules governing the 401 (k) plans relied upon by so many Americans as a future source of retirement income," said Senator Collins. "My hope is that we can work together on a bipartisan basis to develop a solution that will restore our faith in the 401 (k) plan as a vehicle for saving for retirement."
Senator Collins, a member of the Governmental Affairs Committee, also said the Enron debacle raises a "key question" about whether employees with 401 (k) plans have access to disinterested financial advice. To that end, she has joined Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) in authoring legislation that encourages employers to provide employees participating in a company-sponsored 401 (k) plan with impartial investment advice.
"It may be difficult to determine to what extent Enron''s employees, in buying so much stock, felt pressured to do so by corporate executives or the corporate culture. Nevertheless, there seems near unanimous agreement that Congress should provide additional safeguards to ensure that workers are able to make sound investment decisions. Further, we should ensure that there is one standard for everyone in their ability to make such decisions, rather than providing one system for executives, and another for rank and file employees."