ECONOMIC & FINANCIAL LITERACY

Senator Akaka believes that one of the strongest ways to protect consumers is to arm them with information and knowledge. That's why he has worked to increase consumer confidence in their own money management, by ensuring the education, protection and empowerment of individual consumers and families. The Senator is an acknowledged champion of economic and financial literacy, receiving national awards for his work from organizations such as the National Council on Economic Education and Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy.

He authored and successfully obtained funding for the Excellence in Economic Education Act. The Act awards a competitive grant to a national nonprofit educational organization that exists primarily to improve student understanding about economic and financial literacy through the classroom. Senator Akaka also introduced the College Literacy in Finance and Economics Act to address the problem of increasing debt loads among the nation's college students, as well as to enhance financial and economic literacy for college students. Senator Akaka was also instrumental in creating in the Financial Literacy and Education Commission. The Commission is an intergovernmental coordinating body whose goal is to improve the financial decision making of all Americans by strengthening education to raise financial literacy levels. In FY 2005, he secured $1 million for the commission to develop and implement a national strategy to promote basic financial literacy and education for all consumers.

As the ranking Democrat on the Readiness Subcommittee in Armed Services, Senator Akaka launched a comprehensive financial education campaign for the military in Honolulu in 2006. Sponsored by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) Investor Education Foundation, in cooperation with the Department of Defense, the campaign is designed to help military personnel and their families manage their money. This is the first of such programs that will be conducted across the country.

With the NASD, Hawaii Council on Economic Education, and the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Senator Akaka also cosponsored investor education forums on Maui, Oahu, Kauai and the Big Island that collectively drew more than 2,500 participants. He also authored and is working on several measures to improve independence on mutual fund boards, clamp down on predatory lending, improve credit-counseling services, increase resources for taxpayer assistance, and eliminate Refund Anticipation Loans.

FOOD SAFETY

Senator Akaka is also a leader in the national effort to ensure food safety. For example, he has introduced legislation, the Downed Animal Protection Act, to protect human health and shield the U.S. livestock industry by setting uniform nationwide standards to euthanize downed animals and remove them from the U.S. food supply. Non-ambulatory livestock or downed animals, many of which are dying from infectious diseases, should not enter our food chain.

After the discovery of mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in the United States in 2003, the USDA implemented most of the recommendations contained in Akaka's legislation. While Senator Akaka is pleased that many of the measure's recommendations have been implemented by the USDA, he is committed to the expansion and codification of these regulations.

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