Congressional Record, Volume 164 Issue 79 (Tuesday, May 15, 2018)

[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 79 (Tuesday, May 15, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2667-S2672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

Pensions

Mr. President, over the next hour, we will hear from a group of
Senators speaking in support of the hundreds of thousands of workers
and retirees across the country at risk of losing their pensions. We
are here, once again, calling on Congress to enact pension legislation
before it is too late.
I thank Senator Baldwin for helping me organize this block of floor
speeches, and I thank Senators Heitkamp, Manchin, Klobuchar, Casey, and
Peters for their participation today and for their years of hard work
in search of a solution. I also want to recognize my friend and
colleague Senator Brown for his tireless leadership on this issue.
If we don't act soon, in my home State of Indiana, nearly 22,000
Teamsters and 2,700 mine workers could face significant pension cuts--
and they are not alone. There are nearly 150 multiemployer pension
plans listed by the U.S. Department of Labor as in ``critical or
endangered status.'' The failure of those plans would likely lead to
the collapse of the Federal pension insurance program--the PBGC--the
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
Over the last several years I, along with a number of my colleagues,
have been calling on the Senate to take action. I helped introduce the
Butch Lewis Act, which puts pension plans on solid footing through a
new financing option. I also helped introduce the Miners Pension
Protection Act, which would ensure the solvency of the United Mine
Workers of America pension plan.
I met with Hoosier pension beneficiaries countless times to hear
their stories, including hundreds of Teamsters at Local 135 in
Indianapolis and dozens of mineworkers in Oakland City. Additionally, I
have hosted bipartisan meetings and spoken with the current and
previous administrations to push for action now.
Though I wish legislation had already been enacted, Congress did
create a joint select committee earlier this year to hopefully craft a
legislative solution by the end of the year. That is why I am here--to
continue shining a light on this important issue and to push for a
solution.
This issue has significant, real-life implications for the thousands
of Hoosiers who are affected by it. Don't take my word for it; listen
to the heartfelt words of my constituents.
Rex and Cristine in Fort Wayne, IN, wrote:

We both worked really hard for a combined number of 48
years . . . and now to be faced with the possibility of
elimination or reduction of our pensions--through no fault of
our own--would severely impact our peace of mind and quality
of life. . . . A promise is a promise and we, as retirees,
need these promises to be honored.

Randy, who is a retiree and Teamster since 1972 in Fort Wayne, IN,
wrote:

My entire working career . . . I was promised what I would
earn from my pension. . . . Now I am sixty-five years old and
have health issues. . . . I need your help to pass the Butch
Lewis Act of 2017 . . . that way we can all live the rest of
our years with dignity and respect without becoming a burden
on anyone.

Steven is a marine veteran from Columbia City, IN. He served from
1971 through 1974. He wrote:

Without my pension, Social Security is my only income. We
are not asking for a hand out, only what most of us worked 30
years for. We earned our pension and as a member of Central
States Pension fund, the government was already watching over
our fund. What happened? Not many of us have anything else to
live on. I am 66 years old and cannot replace a lost pension.

Elizabeth, from Fort Wayne, IN, wrote:

My husband and I are both drawing a pension from Central
States. Together we worked 45 years without employer
contribution to the pension fund. During this time we
sacrificed a large amount in hourly wage so our company could
contribute to our pension. Since retiring my husband suffered
a heart attack and had two knee surgeries. It would be very
difficult for him to find work that would replace the lost
income if we no longer have our pensions.

Russel from Yoder, IN, wrote:

Without my pension, it will become much more difficult to
buy groceries, pay for our medicine . . . my wife and I are
both 81 years old. I paid into the pension fund for 41 years
and I ask you to protect your constituents by urging the
leadership to include the Butch Lewis Act in the agenda.

David, who is also from Fort Wayne, wrote:

We planned on having this pension for 30 years. All those
years I worked hard, paid my dues . . . I thought I would be
able to secure my family's ability to relax and enjoy
retirement and not have to worry about pennies spent . . .
this is not cheap and cuts into our Social Security. Our
pension helps absorb these added costs for our household
money and is not extra money.

Nelson, who is from Andrews, IN, wrote:

I started driving a truck in 1957 and since that time I've
driven well over 3.2 million accident-free miles. . . . Now,
my wife and I . . . rely on my pension for basic living
expenses and to cover medical expenses. If my pension is cut,
we'll be unable to make ends meet. We urgently need your help
to protect my pension.

Rex and Cristine, Randy, Steven, Elizabeth, Russell, David and Nelson
all earned their pensions, and they are just a small representation of
the thousands of working families--and everyone has their own story--
who are depending on us to do our job and act. They don't want a
handout. That is not the American way. That is not the Hoosier way.
They did their part. Now it is time for us to help make good on what
they were promised.
They don't care about politics. They don't want anything to do with
partisanship. They just want us to fix this. That is part of why we
were sent here--to solve problems--and it is time to solve this problem
now.
Let's reach a solution that allows American workers to retire with
the financial security they expected and the financial security they
earned.
Thank you.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, I rise on behalf of the more than 25,000
workers and retirees in Wisconsin who have paid into the Central States
Pension Fund.
If Washington does not act, workers and retirees face massive cuts to
the pensions they have earned over decades of work. If Washington does
not act, small businesses will be on the hook for a pension liability
they cannot afford.
I have been proud to work side by side with Wisconsin workers and
retirees and with Senator Brown, who introduced the Butch Lewis Act,
and I have been proud to work with Senator Donnelly and others to
organize this afternoon's opportunity to share the stories of the hard-
working people and retirees we represent.
The bill--the Butch Lewis Act--will put failing multiemployer pension
plans, including Central States, back on solid ground, and it does so
without cutting a single cent from the pension retirees have earned.
I have also introduced legislation to help shore up the government's
insurance plan for these pensions. Earlier this year, I shared the
stories of Wisconsin retirees who stand to lose more than 50 percent of
their pensions if Washington does not act. Since then, nothing has been
done. I am here once again to remind my colleagues that this is about a
promise that must be kept.
This is about a promise made to Gary, from Marshfield, WI. Gary told
me:

We recently got custody of our great grandson, and raising
an 8 year old is expensive, more expensive than when our kids
were young. If my pension gets cut, it would definitely
affect our family.

I relate to Gary's comments because I was raised by my grandparents.
I can't imagine raising a great-grandchild. So thank you for doing
that. Also, yes, it does cost money, and you need to have the stability
of keeping the promises that you were given when you enrolled in
Central States Pension.
This is about a promise made to Diane and her husband, from
Luxemburg, WI. Diane wrote to tell me:

If my husband loses his pension, we could lose our house.
My husband has been through polio, cancer, a knee
replacement--and he needs another. He worked hard all his
life lifting thousands of pounds every day in a grocery
warehouse. We paid into a pension expecting to have a
comfortable life in retirement--and now it's at risk of being
lost.

This is about a promise we made to Michael, from De Pere, WI, a
Vietnam veteran. For over 30 years, Michael was a driver at a local
construction business. His wife is a retired nurse. They both worked
long hours and are now at the age where finding a new job is not an
option. Michael told me:

[[Page S2668]]

With increasing costs of living and prescription drugs,
losing my pension would leave us in a state of devastation.

This is about a promise made to Randall. Randall is from Suamico, WI.
He is a retired truckdriver. Randall told me about long hours on the
road and leaving his wife at home to care for their children. In 2015
he received a letter from Central States Pension Fund informing him
that his pension would be cut in half.
I can't imagine receiving that sort of devastating news.
Randall is 68 years old, he is in poor health, and he would find it
impossible to find another job today. He said:

My wife and I both worked hard our entire lives. Our hard
work should have meant a secure retirement, and we are
worried sick about the possibility of losing my pension. It
is difficult to sleep at night.

If Washington does not act, we will be breaking a promise made to 1.5
million workers and retirees nationwide. Small businesses will make
hard decisions to lay off workers or close their doors. Washington
needs to act, and we need to do it now.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from
Wisconsin for those heartfelt and inspiring remarks. It illustrates the
problem--the problem I was talking about with my friend Randy, from
Fort Wayne, who said: ``My entire career I was promised what I would
earn from my pension.''
These are people who every day got up in the dark, worked all day,
and went home in the dark so they could take care of their families, so
they could meet their obligations.
All of the businesses to which many of these teamster drivers
delivered counted on those drivers to be there every day, on time in
order to keep their business going, and they always kept their word.
The coal miners from my State were promised by Harry Truman that this
pension was a sacred obligation that would be kept, and they counted on
President Truman's word and the word of everybody else after that.
They kept the lights on in our country. They helped to make sure that
we were able to win wars. They stood up every single day to fight for
the red, white, and blue. All they ever asked is for us to keep our
word. That is what we need to do.
I am honored to have with us here today my colleague from North
Dakota, who fights every single day for the people of her State. We are
so blessed to have her with us right now.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, this is such an important issue, and
those of us who have spent time with any of the workers and those of us
who have spent time with small business owners who are deeply concerned
about the viability of their business under a ``last man standing''
kind of rule completely understand the level of grave concern these
Americans are experiencing as a result of the problem with
multiemployer pension funds like Central States. It is clear to me that
if we fail to act, workers and retirees could, and probably will, see
their retirement security disappear. Small businesses across the
country could, and probably will, face bankruptcy, and taxpayers would
still be left on the hook.
Today we are here to tell the stories and give the voice to the
workers, small businesses, and retirees who are most at-risk for losing
their pensions after years of hard work and playing by the rules. Today
I rise to give a voice to thousands of North Dakota workers and
retirees who are at risk of losing their retirement security because of
the financial instability of our multiemployer pension system.
The only way to prevent these workers and retirees from losing their
pensions is for Congress to act. These men and women did everything
right, and they live not just in North Dakota but in almost every
State. They played by the rules. They worked for years, if not decades,
often in labor-intensive jobs, like coal miners or as workers in the
trucking industry, such as UPS package delivery and grocery supply
stores. They acted responsibly when they negotiated for and started
putting money away in their pensions, taking wage reductions to
guarantee that their family had a future.
I also want to point out that when I asked how many of the pensioners
who come to my meetings served their country by putting on a uniform to
stand up, usually it is about a third to a half of the room. So let's
not forget that these are veterans who returned home. They started
working in their communities. They took off that uniform and continued
to build our communities, and now they are struggling to understand how
a government and how a society could be leaving them in this level of
uncertainty regarding their economic future.
I want to tell a couple stories of some of the people that I have
met. I want you to know that on Saturday, I had a meeting with over 140
workers in Fargo. They came from all over, and their stories were
heartbreaking. They couldn't understand, if they did everything right,
how in the United States of America they would have their financial
viability at risk. I had one man stand up who was 80 years old who told
me that he went back to work when he knew there was going to be a
problem, and he worked in the oil fields. He said: I am worn out; there
is nothing more I can do.
I want to talk about Donna Matson and her husband Mike, who worked as
a UPS driver for 30 years in Fargo, a job that had an impact on his
time with his family and his health. In 2013 he was diagnosed with a
progressive supranuclear palsy, a degenerative disease that requires
regular and expensive speech, physical, and occupational therapies.
That pension he put money into was supposed to be there to support his
family after Mike's decades of labor. Now, when he needs it most and
when his wife Donna needs it most, that pension could be ripped away.
Tina Kramer, from Mandan, was a member of the Teamsters, working as a
secretary for the local union for 25 years, through which she earned a
pension. Her husband was a member of the Steelworkers and worked for
Bobcat for about 30 years as a forklift driver, and he earned a
pension. Several years ago, both of them retired. Soon after, Tina's
husband suddenly passed away. Tina lost her husband's pension and now
relies solely on her pension. Tina has just a little bit of savings,
and she has already had to dip into that each month to pay her bills
for groceries and property taxes. Should the Central States Fund go
bankrupt, it is only going to get worse.
Mark Rothschiller, from Bismarck, gave up a lot to work many long
hours as a UPS driver for 27 years. When we say ``gave up a lot,'' he
gave up going to his kids' plays and sports games because he often
worked late. Because of the intensive labor of his work, he has had
five back surgeries and another rotator cuff surgery, which forced him
to retire early. If Congress doesn't act to fix the Central States
Pension Fund, he doesn't know if he will be able to pay his healthcare
bills.
Mark Lundeby, from Grand Forks, never thought he would be in the
position where after 36\1/2\ years of driving a semi, putting in 14-
hour days, with extensive stretches away from home, he no longer may
have his retirement savings. That is the reality. He followed the rules
and paid into his pensions throughout his entire career. He tells me
that if we don't move legislation to protect his pension soon, he will
have to sell his house.
I invite any of our colleagues in this body to call a meeting of the
people who have been affected. I serve on the Select Committee on
Pensions. At our first meeting, we had a lot of discussion about how
difficult solving this problem will be. There was a lot of talk about
the math and how we could make the math work and how we could bring
this fund back into solvency. I said: That is right. We need to fix the
economics of the pension fund, but we cannot ignore our moral
imperative.
That moral imperative is to do the right thing, to make sure that, as
we are standing there, we realize that for very, very many--in fact,
for hundreds of thousands of citizens of our State--this is life or
death. This is the difference between having dignity in retirement and
being completely dependent on someone else to help them through. This
is at a time that they did nothing wrong, other than to plan for a
pension that would work for them, other than to bargain for a pension
that would work for them. We cannot

[[Page S2669]]

ignore the moral imperative. Yes, we need to fix this, and we need to
fix it soon because time is wasting. The longer we wait, the more
difficult it is going to be.
I invite all of our colleagues who aren't familiar with this issue to
call a meeting or to come to one of our meetings and to look these
veterans in the face, look these hardworking people in the face, look
at the active folks who don't know if their benefits are already going
to be given and available to them, look them in the face and say: It is
simply a math problem. Your problem is a math problem.
No, their problem is an American problem. It is a congressional
problem. It is an administration problem, and it needs to be fixed. We
need to make a commitment to making sure that the people who have
worked hard all their lives--the people we talk about every day on this
floor--are kept whole and moving in securing their pensions. It is an
American imperative.
Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. President, I want to thank my friend and colleague
from North Dakota, who works nonstop for the people of her State.
We often talk about making sure the things we do in the Senate reward
hard work, that they stand up for hard work, that they are focused on
making sure there is a fair deal for those, as I mentioned before, who
go to work in the dark, who work all day and all evening, and who come
home in the dark, and on making sure we keep our word in regard to
pensions related to them--to the people who have worked 30, 40 years.
My colleague from Michigan, Senator Peters, has always been at the
forefront of making sure we keep our word, that we do what is right,
and that we stand up for the working men and women of Michigan and our
country.
I yield to the Senator from Michigan.
Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, I thank Senator Donnelly for bringing this
issue to the floor. I also thank him for his leadership on this issue.
He has fought for Indiana families day in and day out on the Senate
floor. They are facing a crisis now as the people of Michigan are
facing a crisis. As the Senator spoke about a fair deal, I can say,
with a great deal of certainty, that the people of Michigan, just like
the people of Indiana, believe a deal is a deal. This is a saying we
have all heard, but it is also something on which we should all agree
throughout the country.
The American commitment to honoring contracts is part of why our
economy is the greatest in the world. Businesses know that if their
partners in duly executed deals back out, they have access to the full
power of our courts and our legal system to make them whole. This is
basic fairness. A deal is a deal. Workers deserve the same fairness.
Workers who have banded together to negotiate for pensions during their
retirements in exchange for lower upfront pay deserve the pensions they
have earned.
Generations of Americans have built their lives around the idea that
if you work hard and play by the rules, you will have a fair shot at
success. The certainty that hard work will be rewarded empowers
Americans to achieve economic security, provide for loved ones, and
retire with dignity, but for many Americans who have spent decades
working hard, their retirements are now at risk.
Tens of thousands of Michiganders will be denied their hard-earned
retirements if Congress does not act to protect the pension benefits
they have earned. More than 400,000 Americans, including over 47,000 in
Michigan, will face massive cuts to their pensions if the Central
States Pension Fund is allowed to fail. Central States is not the only
multiemployer pension plan that is on a rapid path to insolvency. As
many as 200 financially troubled plans are at risk of being closed
while the retirements of 1.5 million Americans hang in the balance.
When Michiganders contact me about this issue, they are frustrated
and angry, but more than anything else, they are afraid. They are
afraid they will lose their homes. They are afraid they will be unable
to afford the healthcare they need. They are afraid they could, one
day, become burdens on their adult children.
I appreciate that it is not very easy to share very personal fears,
but I would like to share some of the stories I have heard from
Michigan retirees and from folks who are hoping to retire soon.
Carl from Menominee would have to sell his house and find a new job
he and his aching joints would, hopefully, be able to handle at the age
of 72, after 30 years of hard physical labor.
Jan and his wife Thelma, from Deerfield, would lose the home Jan
built over 50 years ago with his own two hands. Although Thelma still
works and pays into a pension plan, she will not receive the benefits
she has earned over the last decade--ever since the troubled plan froze
the funds for active workers. For people like Thelma, the uncertainty
of pension cuts is quickly becoming a harsh reality.
William from Erie is enduring an 80-percent cut to his pension. He
describes it as the worst thing that could have possibly ever happened
to him and his wife in their golden years. William is a Navy veteran
who drove 120 miles to and from work every day to keep his pension and
the promise of a comfortable retirement. The extreme cuts he is facing
have forced him to go back to work. He had to overcome multiple
barriers to senior employment in order to land a minimum-wage job. The
job pays for basic necessities, like electricity, food, and heat, but
he still cannot afford health insurance for his wife, who is still more
than a year away from qualifying for Medicare.
These Americans made deals with their employers--decades of hard work
in exchange for fair earnings and decent retirements. A deal is a deal.
We have the FDIC to make sure Americans don't lose their life savings
if banks go under. We have federally backed crop insurance to help
protect farmers who face unpredictable growing seasons. We even have
federally backed mortgage insurance to protect banks if homeowners
can't pay their mortgages.
Workers like Carl, Thelma, and William are not asking for handouts.
They are asking for the pension benefits they earned, that they
bargained for, and that they worked their entire lives to secure. A
deal is a deal. We must make this right.
I urge my colleagues to stand up for American workers and support the
Butch Lewis Act. We must address pension insolvency without sacrificing
workers' hard-earned benefits.
I thank Senator Donnelly for bringing this issue to the floor. I am
with him, and we need to bring our colleagues with us as well.
Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Michigan, who
has so many teamster members who travel back and forth across our
respective borders every day, who ride some of the most difficult and
dangerous roads in the world, who, on a constant basis, are helping
families who may be in trouble on the road, who are helping others whom
they see along the way. They are not only professional drivers and
other Teamster members; they are people who keep a sharp eye out for
others in order to help them if they are in trouble. They keep an eye
on every family who is out there on the road and on their fellow
drivers. They make America go.
So many auto parts from the Senator's State of Michigan come down to
my State of Indiana. So many parts go from my State to his State of
Michigan to create jobs, to make America go. We want to tell all of
those workers: This is your capital. This is your government. We are
the hired help. We work for you. It is our obligation to fix this
because promises were made.
President Harry Truman promised our mine workers that their pensions
would be protected and that their healthcare would be protected. Those
mine workers went down underground and powered our economy and powered
our war efforts in World War II, in Korea, in Vietnam. They were there
to ensure that when our men and women were overseas, they would have
what they needed. Promises were made. It is our obligation to keep them
for the Central States Pension Fund and for other pension programs.
As I mentioned before, these are the people who go to work in the
dark and come home in the dark, who drive our economy and who make our
country the envy of the world. They don't come up with excuses. They
make sure all of the other workers in our Nation have all of the goods
they need to put cars together, to build planes--to drive our Nation
forward, to continue to increase our productivity. That is what these

[[Page S2670]]

men and women have done for 30, 40 years, and they have contributed to
their pension plans. All they are asking is for a fair deal. It is our
job--it is up to us--to make sure we keep that sacred bond, and that is
what we will fight to do.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Perdue). The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. President, we are blessed to have with us my friend
and colleague from West Virginia, Senator Manchin. No one fights harder
for the working folks than Senator Manchin. No one fought harder to
make sure we were able to protect the healthcare benefits of our
retired mine workers. We worked together on that nonstop to make sure
that promise was kept, and Senator Manchin has continued to work
nonstop to protect the pensions of these mine workers and of so many
others, like of the Central States. Senator Manchin has been kind
enough to join us this afternoon, and we look forward to his remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, first of all, to my colleague from
Indiana, there is nobody who has been a greater ally or greater friend
than Senator Donnelly in some of the fights we have had, basically
making sure that there is fairness between business and workers and
that workers are treated fairly. We fought for that. Mr. Donnelly has
fought for miners in Indiana, and he brought me into his State to spend
time with them, and I appreciate that very much. We will continue to
make sure that we get the job done.
This should not be a conversation we are having right now--fighting
for miners' pensions. This was all rolled into one bill. The healthcare
and pensions were all done at one time. We had a pay-for. We had it
worked out. We thought we had an agreement, and it was bipartisan. It
came out of the Senate Finance Committee in a bipartisan way. I thank
Senator Hatch for taking an interest in leading that.
We will have to go back and fix this now. We have half of the job
done and half more to do.
Two weeks ago marked the 1-year anniversary of having a permanent fix
for the miners' healthcare, preventing 22,600 coal miners, just in my
State alone, from losing their healthcare. Now the Joint Select
Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans, of which I am
very proud to be a member, is determined to find a permanent solution
for the miners' pensions.
Over 70 years ago, President Harry Truman recognized the importance
of the coal that our miners produced for this country, and he promised
that the Government would guarantee that our great coal miners would
have those benefits in return for their service. Let me tell you that
up until that point in time, my grandparents, on both sides of my
family, were coal miners. They both then started little grocery stores.
Up until that time, there were no guarantees or benefits. When they
said you owed your soul to the company store, that was literally and
figuratively correct.
My grandfather lived up until 1927. He worked and loaded coal since
he was 9 years old and never got a paycheck. He got scrip. At the end
of the pay period, he always owed more than they paid him. So they were
fighting for this for many years. It was Harry Truman who finally
realized what the coal industry and coal mining had done for America.
There has not been a group of people who have ever given more in blood,
sweat, and tears in hard labor.
I tell people that they mined the coal that made the steel that built
the guns and ships that defended our country and helped to build the
Industrial Revolution and really helped to lift the middle class to
what it is and what it has been.
It was over 70 years ago that President Truman recognized that
importance, and he made sure that would not go unnoticed. He passed a
bill with John L. Lewis and, at that time, Senator Krug. He passed a
piece of legislation. This was not from taxpayers' money. They
basically said that from every ton of coal mined from this day forward
by the Mine Workers of America, a percentage of the price of that
commodity, of that coal, would go toward their benefits so they would
have something.
Let me tell you exactly what we have gotten today. The average
miner's pension is $595. We are not talking about thousands of dollars.
Most of this goes to widows whose husbands have passed away. Without
this, they don't have a lifeline. In 2022 it goes away.
The agreement was a sacred promise between workers and the country,
and it captured the best of America and who we are.
But the multiemployer pension system in the United States is in
crisis. As many as 114 multiemployer pension plans, including the
United Mine Workers of America 1974 Pension Plan, are expected to
become insolvent. The miners' pension fund is up first. We are the
first ones on the block. This critical plan, which covers 87,000
retired miners--27,000 in my State alone--and 20,000 fully vested
current workers is projected to be totally insolvent by 2022 or sooner.
If Congress allows these pension funds to go under, the results will be
devastating for retirees and for current employees and the communities
these companies and beneficiaries are members of, including those in
West Virginia. These financial losses will be felt throughout the
communities UMWA retirees live in and spend money in.
We must work together to prevent this catastrophe and shore up
miners' pension plans--pensions they have earned and paid into.
Let me state how most of them became insolvent. It didn't happen
until the 1980s, as far as the bankruptcy laws in America. Bankruptcy
laws in our great country put the financial institution before the
human being who worked for the benefits they earned and paid for. There
has to be a correction. There has to be some right done there because
these miners and workers all over this country basically leave that
money in and pay for their benefits, and, at the end of their work
life, it is gone because of some conglomerate or some type of corporate
takeover or through a bankruptcy. This can't be tolerated any longer.
We could not have passed a permanent fix for miners' healthcare
without the support of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and
President Trump. I have spoken to President Trump about this, and he is
all for it. He is trying to help the miners. He knows what they have
done for the country, and I appreciate his speaking up for coal miners
and hard-working people across the country.
We have no better advocates for securing a healthcare fix than the
retired miners themselves. They come up here day by day, putting a real
face to the families and the challenges they have. They have done this
for years. For years they have walked the halls of Congress. They met
with all of the Members and their staffs. They worked the phones and
wrote letters urging us to keep the promise that was made to them. I
stand by them, leading the fight to make sure retired coal miners'
pensions will not be taken away too. We are not going to let this
happen. I have talked with thousands of West Virginians who will be
devastated if they lost their pensions. We received letters from miners
and their families about the fear and anxiety that comes with not
knowing whether they will be able to pay the mortgage or put food on
the table.
If my good friend the Senator from Indiana will indulge me a little
longer, I want to read about Ricky, from Hewett, WV. He is worried that
if his pension is taken away or reduced, he will not be able to support
his family. He said:

As a retired coal miner my family and I rely greatly on
these very modest benefits. Losing or even having my pension
reduced would cause great hardship on my family. A coal
miner's pension is not very much to start with. I am not
asking for a handout--only what I earned through years of
hard work.

Benny, from Oceana, WV, would have to choose between buying food and
paying utility bills. He said:

I only draw a small pension of $215.96 each month, but if I
lose that I will have to decide between food or utility
bills. I am an older disabled coal miner with a small social
security check. The loss of my pension check would be
devastating.

[[Page S2671]]

Judy, from Sharples, is worried that if she lost her late husband's
pension, she and her grandson wouldn't be able to make it. These are
basically people who have become second parents because the parents
have become dysfunctional. She wrote:

I'm not a rich person, but if I lose my late husband's
pension I will lose everything I have. My husband worked 30
plus years at the mines with the promise that we would be
taken care of. Yes, I get Social Security but that won't
cover my regular bills by itself, not to mention home and car
insurance plus taxes. . . .

After securing healthcare benefits for retired miners, we proved that
Congress can work together and put partisan politics aside. This was
truly done in a bipartisan way. It is a philosophy that I followed
throughout my life in public service and in the West Virginia State
Legislature, as the Governor of the great State of West Virginia, and
now as a U.S. Senator representing the great State of West Virginia.
The coal miners are among the hardest working people in America, and
they spent their lives empowering the Nation and keeping it the
strongest in the world.
I will leave you with this. When people ask: Where are you from? Let
me tell you where I am from. I am from a little State that has the most
patriotic people in the Nation. They have fought in every war and
conflict and shed more blood and lost more lives for the cause of
freedom than most any State. They have done the heavy lifting, mining
the coal, making steel, and building the guns and ships that defend us
every day.
The Good Lord has been so kind to us. He gave us a great venue, my
State of West Virginia. We hope you come, and when you do, we hope you
stay.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. President, we are so fortunate to have such a
fighter for the people of West Virginia in Senator Manchin. We are
grateful for his hard work.
We have another amazing fighter for the people of the State of
Minnesota, Senator Klobuchar. Senator Klobuchar has fought nonstop on
this issue as well.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, thanks to my friends from West Virginia
and Indiana. I thank Mr. Donnelly for his leadership and bringing us
together today.
Minnesota, like Indiana, has so many people who are in the Central
States Pension Fund. Like Senator Donnelly, I believe that promises
made should be promises kept. Over 10 million Americans participate in
a multiemployer pension plan and rely on those benefits for a safe and
secure retirement.
The Central States Pension Fund was established in 1955 to help
truckers save for retirement. As Senator Donnelly knows, coming from
Indiana--a State where there are a lot of truckers--there are a lot of
truckers still in this pension plan. Today the Central States Pension
Fund includes workers from the carhaul, tankhaul, pipeline, warehouse,
construction, clerical, food processing, dairy, and trucking
industries.
I have heard from people all over my State. Fred, from Hibbing,
worked 33 years as a bread man and serves as a caregiver for his wife
who has serious back problems and was recently diagnosed with leukemia.
Daniel from St. Michael worked over 41 years as a mechanic. If he
were to face a reduction in his pension, he would likely be forced to
sell the house he has lived in since 1973.
Sue, from Elk River, wrote about her husband Jim, who retired in 1998
and passed away in 2013. Jim left Sue a spousal benefit pension that
was supposed to take care of her for the rest of her life. Sue writes
that Jim's passing was ``devastating enough on its own,'' but now she
fears being forced into the labor market as a woman in her seventies,
just to make ends meet.
These are just a few of the examples. Unless Congress acts, hundreds
of thousands of participants in the Central States Pension Fund face
the real possibility that their hard-earned pensions could be reduced.
Many of these are from the Midwest. That is why it is called the
Central States Pension Fund.
We need to find a workable solution for underfunded multiemployer
pension plans. I know Senator Brown is leading a group that is working
on that--the joint committee working together--to find a solution they
can present to the American people.
We all know that delay only makes the solution more costly. The time
is here. It has arrived. We can't put it off any more. We must move
forward now to get this done. I thank Senator Donnelly for his
leadership.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from
Minnesota. She has been a nonstop advocate for folks across her State
and across the country. Another nonstop advocate has been my friend and
colleague from Pennsylvania, Senator Casey, who works tirelessly not
only on behalf of the Keystone State but on behalf of working families
all across America.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
Mr. CASEY. Thank you, Mr. President. I rise, first of all, to thank
Senator Donnelly for his leadership and my colleagues.
I am speaking today on behalf of hundreds of thousands of people in
Pennsylvania who currently rely or will rely upon a pension. The
multiemployer pension program protects about 10 million workers and
retirees in about 1,400 pension plans across the country. In
Pennsylvania, that number is 230 multiemployer pension plans, with a
total of about 910,000 beneficiaries. Without action, the full pensions
of over 33,000 Pennsylvanians are at risk, as is the solvency of the
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. In 2017 the Pension Benefit
Guaranty Corporation paid $462 million to Pennsylvanians whose pension
plans had failed. That is about $5,800 on average.
Democrats in the Senate have been fighting to preserve these earned
benefits for our retirees for years, including our Nation's coal
miners. The fight for our coal miners we have just half-won. We were
successful in making sure that their promised healthcare benefits are
there for them, but we still have work to do with regard to pensions.
It is inexcusable that Americans who have earned these benefits have
to worry, as some do, and they have been worrying for many years.
We know what the tax bill did, among many things, for very wealthy
interests. The tax bill that got rammed through the Senate in December
of last year gave $13 billion in tax windfalls to our Nation's six
largest banks. That is $13 billion for 1 year--this year alone--and
they are all unpaid for. So the debt goes up. Six big banks get $13
billion, and yet this body, the Senate, can't deliver on the promise of
pensions to hundreds of thousands across the country.
Let me give you three quick examples in the limited time we have.
Debbie, from Western Pennsylvania, wrote about the miners pension act.
She said in part, talking about her family: ``We depend on my dad's
pension to survive on the limited income.'' So said Debbie from Western
Pennsylvania.
Dennis, also from Southwestern Pennsylvania, drove a truck for 25
years of his life, ``working long hours away from my family,'' he said,
``to provide a good living.'' He said: ``I . . . would appreciate it if
you could do whatever you can to preserve that pension for my wife and
for me.''
Stuart from Northeastern Pennsylvania--the corner of the State I live
in--is a bakery and confectionary union pensioner. He said:

Please help save our BCTGM pension fund. I paid into that
pension system for 26 years and depend on it greatly. I work
three jobs and my wife works two jobs. We have put one child
thru college and one just entered.

None of these families should have to worry about these earned
benefits--this measure of retirement security, so we have a long way to
go. But I am grateful that we are willing to work together on both
sides of the aisle, and I am especially grateful that Democrats have
been united in finally keeping that promise to those who have earned
these benefits, those who have earned these pensions.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.

[[Page S2672]]

Mr. DONNELLY. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleagues from
Pennsylvania and Minnesota, who are still in the Chamber with us right
now. Their focus has always been on honoring hard work, on making sure
that we keep our word to the truckdriver who has paid in every day, who
is riding down the Pennsylvania Turnpike or the Schuylkill Expressway
or heading up I-35 in Minnesota and that we keep the promise that was
made to them after 30, 35 years of hard work, of driving, of trying to
keep people safe, of making a difference, of delivering the food people
have to eat, the parts people have to put together at work to make sure
our country can continue to move forward. Those are the folks we are
talking about.
If either of my colleagues would like to say anything else in regard
to the amazing, hard work of the miners in Pennsylvania or the
teamsters in Minnesota--those are the folks, the Central States Pension
Fund and so many other pension funds, as well, that we fight for every
single day to try to get this done because, as the Senator from
Pennsylvania said, this is a job that is half done right now. We were
able to make sure we protected the healthcare benefits that were
promised.
There was a miner and his wife with whom I spent time in Oakland
City, IN, down in Gibson County where we have so many coal mines. When
I saw him, he said: This is one of the greatest days for me when we
were able to keep healthcare benefits.
He said: ``It's not for me. It's because my wife, who is ill''--and
they are both in their eighties--``can now get her medicine again next
week.'' That is what his concern was. It wasn't about himself. It was
about his wife and making sure, with the pain she was struggling with
and the healthcare problems that she had, that he was able to make sure
she would be OK.
That is our job; it is to back up the word that was given to him
because he spent his life working nonstop to keep our country moving
forward, and all he asked in return is that we keep our word.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.