By Isett                                             H.C.R. No. 125
         76R2682 CCK-D                           
                             HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 1-1           WHEREAS, Social Security is threatened increasingly by the
 1-2     specter of insolvency because of demographics and its foundation on
 1-3     current and future payroll taxes rather than trust fund revenue;
 1-4     and
 1-5           WHEREAS, The president of the United States, in a speech to
 1-6     the recent White House Conference on Social Security, acknowledged
 1-7     that by 2013, under its current structure, the system will no
 1-8     longer take in enough money to fund what it pays out; and
 1-9           WHEREAS, Younger members of the workforce harbor little hope
1-10     that Social Security will support them in their old age, and
1-11     Americans who can afford to do so are turning in large numbers to
1-12     alternatives such as Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401k
1-13     and Keough plans; and
1-14           WHEREAS, A virtue of U.S. federalism is the role of the 50
1-15     states as laboratories of democracy; policy experiments are tried
1-16     and nurtured, and successful ones are transplanted to other states;
1-17     and
1-18           WHEREAS, Examples of these experiments include the waivers
1-19     granted to states in the administration of Medicaid and welfare;
1-20     subsequent reform, in the case of welfare, has decentralized policy
1-21     and has enabled the states to design their own approaches to caring
1-22     for the needy while putting many back to work; and
1-23           WHEREAS, Waivers harbor similar promise with respect to
1-24     Social Security; the Oregon and Colorado legislatures have
 2-1     petitioned the United States Congress to allow their states to opt
 2-2     out of Social Security and to seek independent means to ensure the
 2-3     economic livelihood of their elder citizenry; and
 2-4           WHEREAS, The proposal is not an untried experiment; at one
 2-5     time, governmental units could withdraw their employees from Social
 2-6     Security coverage; Galveston, Brazoria, and Matagorda counties did
 2-7     so in 1981, and their pension investments have since averaged a 6.5
 2-8     percent annual rate of return, greatly exceeding the comparative
 2-9     return of Social Security recipients on pre-retirement
2-10     withholdings; and
2-11           WHEREAS, The Texas Legislature, while respectful of the many
2-12     proposals for restructuring the national Social Security system,
2-13     finds that decentralization of pension plans offer the most
2-14     favorable and least restrictive means of providing for fiscal
2-15     security for the elderly; now, therefore, be it
2-16           RESOLVED, That the 76th Legislature of the State of Texas
2-17     hereby respectfully request the Congress of the United States to
2-18     amend federal law to allow Texas and other states to obtain waivers
2-19     to permit their implementation of alternatives to Social Security;
2-20     and, be it further
2-21           RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
2-22     copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
2-23     the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of
2-24     the senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of
2-25     the Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
2-26     resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
2-27     memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.