[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.