[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 186 (Thursday, December 11, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10914-S10915]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 MAKING TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS RELATED TO THE PENSION PROTECTION ACT OF 
                                  2006

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, in a moment I will ask unanimous consent 
that the Senate proceed to passage of H.R. 7327, the pension bill. 
Before I do that, I wish to say this is very important relief for 
seniors and for the country. The bill includes a provision that would 
allow seniors who are 70\1/2\ years of age not to have to make 
withdrawals from their IRA accounts that the current law requires. 
Under current law, if you are 70\1/2\ or older, you must begin to 
withdraw significant amounts from your 401(k) accounts or IRA accounts 
and if you don't, you pay a big penalty. At these times it is not wise 
to require that, because the accounts are lower in value and they 
should not have to make those withdrawals if they don't want to.
  In addition, this legislation would allow companies to postpone 
making increased contributions to their pension plans also required by 
the recent pension law. When we revised pension law a short while ago, 
we were pretty strict to protect employees by requiring companies to 
make contributions to the pension plans at a much faster rate. That 
made sense then, but given the economic downturn, with the market 
values down so much lower than they were back then, it makes sense, I 
believe--and I think most Senators agree--that those contributions 
should be postponed or later modified in order to keep companies 
viable.
  A lot of companies need this to meet payrolls in these difficult 
times, and this will prevent them having to freeze their benefits.
  I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate 
consideration of H.R. 7327, which was received from the House.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 7327) to make technical corrections related to 
     the Pension Protection Act of 2006, and for other purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, we are living through an unprecedented 
economic downturn. Over the past 15 months, the Dow Jones Industrial 
companies have lost more than one-third of their value. An end does not 
appear in sight.
  This sharp market decline hurts more than just Wall Street. It hurts 
every American with a retirement plan. When the market drops, so do the 
assets in pension plans.
  Over the past 15 months, because of the current financial crisis, 
retirement accounts have lost as much as $2 trillion in assets due to 
the current financial crisis. That is $2 trillion that disappeared from 
the retirement accounts of American workers. And that is $2 trillion 
that disappeared from the accounts of pension plans.

[[Page S10915]]

  Congress must act now to protect individual retirement accounts and 
pension benefits and assets.
  This bill provides relief for seniors age 70\1/2\ and older whom 
current law requires to take distributions from their retirement plans.
  Individuals would have the option to keep their retirement savings 
where they are. We should not force them to take out huge portions of 
their savings when the market is down.
  This bill also contains a number of provisions to help ease the 
strain on pension plans. And this bill would help to prevent the need 
for some plans to reduce benefits or make extraordinary funding 
contributions due to the market downturn.
  If we fail to act and provide short-term funding relief, pension 
plans would be unable to afford their increased contributions. By one 
estimate, current law would require 350 of the Fortune 500 companies to 
contribute an extra $100 billion or more to their pension plans next 
year, even if the market rebounds. If these companies did this, they 
would reduce their investment spending by $60 to $70 billion next year. 
That is something that our economy cannot afford.
  This bill provides relief for single-employer plans that fall below 
the set funding target percentage set in the Pension Protection Act of 
2006.
  And the bill provides analogous relief for multi-employer plans that 
are faced with significant underfunding due to market losses. This 
relief would allow them to temporarily freeze their current funding 
certification or extend the time period that they have to restore their 
funding levels.
  The bill also helps prevent benefit restrictions for those single-
employer plans that may be significantly underfunded next year due to 
the market downturn.
  This bill also contains a number of critical technical amendments to 
the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 
arguably marks the most sweeping changes to the pension laws since the 
enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
  Like many complicated pieces of legislation, technical corrections to 
the law must be made.
  Technical corrections to the law are often time sensitive. That is, 
many of them must be passed by both Houses of Congress before the 
effective date of the statute.
  Many of the rules under the Pension Act were effective January 1, 
2008. This means that the time for passing technical corrections has 
come and gone.
  If we were not to act and pass these time-sensitive provisions now, 
the pension community and the Department of the Treasury--the agency 
tasked with interpreting the statute and providing the necessary 
details on how the new law works--would be placed in a very tough spot.
  That is, the Department of the Treasury would not have the necessary 
corrections and clarifications of the original intent of the act to 
sufficiently issue the details necessary to allow the pension community 
to achieve proper compliance. This would not be fair to the pension 
community or the Treasury Department.
  Failing to pass these technical corrections would therefore be 
irresponsible.
  Here in the Senate, we passed the technical corrections contained in 
this act back in December 2007. We already said that these corrections 
are good pension policy.
  Americans need real help from Congress to make sure that their 
retirement savings are safe and sound and available to them when they 
need it. This bill contains a number of provisions that would help to 
provide relief to individuals and pension plans and move the economy 
toward recovery.
  Individuals and the pension community warned that individual 
retirement account holders and pension plan participants could be 
adversely affected without the provisions contained in this bill. 
Passing this pension package sends the right message to individuals, 
plan sponsors, and pension plan participants.
  I thank my colleagues for helping to make passage of this bill 
possible today.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read the 
third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, 
with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related 
to the bill be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 7327) was ordered to a third reading, was read the 
third time, and passed.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________