[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 22 (Monday, February 27, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S1493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      APPOINTING PENSION CONFEREES

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, right before the recess, the distinguished 
majority leader and I had an exchange regarding the pension reform 
conference. Everyone acknowledges the conference is necessary. The 
pension reform bill is headed to conference. It is a very important 
piece of legislation that will affect the pensions of millions of 
working Americans. It has strong bipartisan support. It passed this 
Senate by a vote of 97 to 2.
  This has boiled down to something that is fairly simple: Who will be 
the conferees? We have a right, of course, on our side to choose who we 
believe should be in the conference. The distinguished majority leader 
has the right to choose whom he wants to be in the conference. 
Arbitrarily, the majority leader said that conference would have seven 
Republicans and five Democrats. That is not acceptable. We have said 
that because of the complexity of this issue we need another Democrat. 
We are willing to maintain the margin of two where Republicans would 
have an advantage. But we believe it should be eight to six. 
Republicans would get another conferee. Democrats would get another 
conferee.
  Now, certainly, we are eager to work on producing a conference report 
that will protect the benefits working Americans have earned, provide 
certainty to employers who sponsor pensions, and strengthen the Pension 
Benefit Guaranty Corporation. I can see nothing harmful about having 
six Democrats instead of five. It is important to get the right people 
into the room when these issues are being discussed and decisions are 
being made. Remember, this conference will have jurisdictional aspects 
relating to the Finance and the HELP Committees.
  When we had the corporate tax bill last year, there were 23 
conferees--23 conferees. We are saying there should be, again, eight 
Republicans and six Democrats. Conferees on this legislation will need 
to resolve a number of important and very technical issues because we 
have different feelings than does the House. And when I say ``we,'' I 
mean Democrats and Republicans, as indicated by the overwhelming vote 
to get it out of here.
  I have confidence in the abilities of the two lead Senators on our 
side, Senators Kennedy and Baucus. But this is one conference where the 
addition of a couple more sets of eyes is likely to lead to better 
legislation. So I would hope the majority leader would focus his 
attention on this issue and let the conference go forward. The only 
thing holding this up is whether this conference will have six 
Democrats or five in arriving at a bill that will be brought back to 
this body.

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