Economist Teresa Ghilarducci to testify before full House committee

Author: Dennis Brown

A University of Notre Dame economist is among the witnesses scheduled to testify Thursday (Feb. 7) at a hearing of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the collapse of Enron and its implications for the retirement security of American workers.p. Teresa Ghilarducci, associate professor of economics and director of the Higgins Labor Research Center at Notre Dame, will present expert testimony on the national erosion of private pensions. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2175 Rayburn House Office Building.p. U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao will testify before the committee Wednesday on the Bush administration’s views toward new safeguards for 401(k) plans. In addition to Ghilarducci, a panel that includes Enron employees and executives is scheduled to testify Thursday.p. Ghilarducci testified last week on pension law at a congressional oversight meeting in South Bend, Ind., convened by U.S. Reps. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., and George Miller, D-Calif., seniors members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee.p. One of the nation’s leading experts in the field, Ghilarducci serves on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s advisory board and also is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Indiana Public Employees Pension Board. She has testified before congressional committees on six occasions since 1994 on the issue of retirement income security.p. Ghilarducci is the author of “Labor’s Capital: The Economics and Politics of Private Pensions” and coauthor of “Portable Pension Plans for Casual Labor Markets: Lessons from the Operating Engineers Central Pension Fund.” She has been a member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1983.

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