; Whereas according to the 2016 Consumer Financial Literacy Survey of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, only 40 percent of adults have a budget and keep close track of their spending; Whereas according to the 2016 Consumer Financial Literacy Survey of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, 1 in 3 adults (34 percent) in the United States, or 85,000,000 adults, report that they have no savings, and only 26 percent of adults in the United States are now saving more than they did a year ago because of the current economic climate; Whereas according to the Council for Economic Education biennial Survey of the States 2016: Economic, Personal Finance, and Entrepreneurship Education in Our Nation’s Schools, only 20 States require students to take an economics course as a high school graduation requirement, two fewer than in 2014; Whereas according to the Council for Economic Education biennial Survey of the States 2016: Economic, Personal Finance, and Entrepreneurship Education in Our Nation’s Schools, only 17 States require students to take a personal finance course either independently or as part of an economics course as a high school graduation requirement; Whereas former Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke in 2011 stressed, before a Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, the importance of making financial education a life-long pursuit, considering that well-informed consumers are a solid defense against the spread of financial products and services that are unsuitable, unnecessarily costly, or abusive ; Whereas according to a 2014 study by Annamaria Lusardi from George Washington University and Olivia S. Mitchell from the University of Pennsylvania, econometric models and experiments are confirming the causal effect of financial literacy on economic decision making, separating financial literacy from other factors, such as education and cognitive ability