[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 86 (Friday, May 23, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1097-E1098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE PENSION PROTECTION ACT ERISA AMENDMENTS OF 2008

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ROBERT E. ANDREWS

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 22, 2008

  Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Pension 
Protection Act ERISA Amendments of 2008, PPAEA. Although I voted ``no'' 
on final passage of the Pension Protection Act, PPA, in 2006 due to a 
number of provisions, which put thousands of New Jersey jobs and 
retirees' plans at risk, I do believe there are many beneficial aspects 
of the law that are helping to protect the retirement plans of working 
Americans and retirees across the country.
  For workers retired from a single-employer plan, PPA provided a 
better method of ensuring that an employer may continue to offer 
retirement benefits to their employees by meeting their plan financing 
obligations. This change made it far less likely that taxpayers would 
have to step in and pay the bill for thousands of retirees. PPA also 
provided smaller businesses with a bit more flexibility, by giving some 
of them a new plan option. One such option is known as the ``Defined 
Small Employer Defined Benefit Plan'' or ``DB(k),'' which I authored. 
DB(k) relieves employers of the administrative burden tailored for 
large plans and provides them with the best of both the defined benefit 
and defined contribution world.
  For people who work for or are retired from multi-employer plans, the 
2006 law gives those employers--and the funds to which they

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belong--an opportunity to receive some relief from external 
circumstances that caused those plans to be in jeopardy; and again, 
relieving taxpayers of potential liability and obligation.
  In 2005, on the eve of the introduction of PPA, the economic forecast 
predicted an avalanche of more defined benefit plan terminations, 
placing the solvency of the pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, 
PBGC, as well as hundreds of millions of retirees' assets at risk. With 
several major companies expecting to either eliminate or freeze their 
defined benefit plans a few years ago, PPA has been instrumental in 
slowing the decline in defined benefit, DB, plans. Nevertheless, DB 
plans are still on the decline. Today, less than one in five workers in 
the private sector--20 million workers--has a traditional defined 
benefit plan, while 401(k) plans are on the rise, dominating the 
retirement landscape. Today over 50 million American workers are 
covered by a 401(k) plan. Whether these plans are adequate to provide 
the average American worker with a comfortable retirement remains a 
question we will continue to examine in the coming years.
  Solving the problem of providing retirement coverage, which is both 
affordable and adequate, is a priority of mine, but before we address 
it, we must first make sure PPA is measuring up to its fullest 
potential. The purpose of PPAEA is to correct a number of anomalies in 
PPA, which in many cases, subvert the policy goal of a particular 
provision. Though most of these anomalies were not intentional, if left 
uncorrected they have the potential to strip thousands of retirees of a 
lifetime of savings and force many employers to drop their retirement 
plan for their current employees.
  As I indicated in the hearing I chaired last year in the Health, 
Employment, Labor, and Pensions, HELP, I am not interested in upsetting 
the fundamental agreements of PPA. Rather, I am most interested in 
vindicating those agreements and making them work better.
  With the support of the Chairman of the Committee on Education and 
Labor and my good friend from California, George Miller. and several 
other colleagues, I look forward to working with Members on both sides 
of the aisle to help pass a bill to further protect retiree assets, 
provide employers with a funding method that holds them accountable but 
provides flexibility, reduce burdensome transaction cost to plan 
sponsors and pensioners, and provide employers with additional 
investment tools to ensure that all retirees under their plan receive 
their promised benefit.

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