[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3275 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3275

  To increase the maximum guaranteed benefits with respect to certain 
                participants of a pilots' pension plan.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 14, 2016

   Mr. Kirk introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To increase the maximum guaranteed benefits with respect to certain 
                participants of a pilots' pension plan.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Pilot Pension Relief Act of 2016''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation considers 
        normal retirement age to be 65, and applies a penalty, much 
        like early withdrawal of Social Security benefit payments under 
        title II of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401 et seq.), to 
        anyone receiving benefits before age 65. Prior to December 
        2007, pilots were required by law to retire at age 60. 
        Notwithstanding this, and the apparent conflict between laws, 
        the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation still reduced the 
        benefits to all pilots forced to retire at age 60.
            (2) Another limit on the guarantee of the Pension Benefit 
        Guaranty Corporation is the phase-in limit, which provides that 
        the guarantee of a benefit increase is phased in over 5 years 
        from the later of the adoption of, or effective date of, the 
        increase under a pension plan.
            (3) The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation terminated the 
        United Airlines, Inc., pilots' pension plan several months 
        earlier than the Air Line Pilots Association recommended, in 
        order to minimize the Corporation's obligations to pilots 
        covered by such a pension plan.
            (4) The average retired United Airlines, Inc., pilot is 
        receiving less than 50 percent of vested benefits under the 
        pilots' pension plan.
            (5) Retired United Airlines, Inc., pilots met annual 
        contribution limitations under the Employee Retirement Income 
        Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.), by virtue of 
        their required investment in their company-sponsored pension 
        plan. Accordingly, the pilots were precluded from investing in 
        any other retirement programs, such as IRAs or Roth IRAs and 
        could not invest in a backup plan or safety net for themselves.

SEC. 3. ADJUSTMENT TO THE PBGC MAXIMUM GUARANTEED BENEFIT.

    (a) Maximum Guaranteed Benefit.--In applying title IV of the 
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1301 et 
seq.), to the pilots' pension plan described in subsection (b) during 
the period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act and ending on 
the date that is 2 years after such date of enactment--
            (1) the monthly benefits guaranteed under section 4022 of 
        such Act (29 U.S.C. 1322), shall be calculated under subsection 
        (b)(3)(B) of such section as though the plan termination date 
        were the date of enactment of this Act rather than December 30, 
        2004;
            (2) the maximum guaranteed benefit under section 4022 and 
        4022B of such Act (29 U.S.C. 1322, 1322b), shall be the maximum 
        such amount that would be available if the plan termination 
        date were the date of enactment of this Act rather than 
        December 30, 2004; and
            (3) in applying sections 4022(b)(3) and 4022B(a) of such 
        Act (29 U.S.C. 1322(b)(3), 1322b(a)), with respect to plan 
        participants who retired from the service connected to the 
        pilots' pension plan prior to December 1, 2007, the term 
        ``commencing at age 60'' shall be substituted for the term 
        ``commencing at age 65''.
    (b) Applicable Plan.--For purposes of this section, the term 
``pilots' pension plan'' means the pilot's pension plan that was 
sponsored by United Airlines, Inc., and which was terminated under 
section 4048 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 
U.S.C. 1348), on December 30, 2004.
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