[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 162 (Tuesday, October 15, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5780-S5783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Pensions

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I thank Senators Manchin and Stabenow for 
joining us today. Senators Baldwin and Casey will come later to shine a 
light on the more than 1 million workers and retirees across this 
country who are on the verge of facing massive cuts to the pensions 
they have earned.
  I want to thank the workers and retirees who are in Washington this 
week. You will see teamsters, sheet metal workers, mine workers, 
carpenters, ironworkers, bakers and confectioners--retirees, mostly--
who have earned this retirement but because of an action in this body, 
simply haven't had that retirement promise fulfilled. They are 
demanding that Congress honor the dignity of their work and honor the 
promise of those pensions.
  The crisis affects thousands in my State of Ohio and affects the 
massive

[[Page S5781]]

Central States pension plan, the United Mine Workers pension plan, the 
Ironworkers Local 17 pension plan, the Southwest Ohio carpenters 
pension plan, the bakers and confectioners pension plan, and others in 
every State in this country. We are talking about our entire 
multiemployer pension system. If it collapses, it won't be just the 
retirees who will feel the pain. Current workers will be stuck paying 
into pensions they will never receive, and small businesses will be 
left drowning in pension liability they cannot afford to pay. It will 
have ripple effects throughout our economy.
  Let's be clear. If we do nothing, this could trigger a recession 
perhaps on par with the housing crisis. And we know what Wall Street 
greed did in the housing crisis, and we know what could happen here if 
Senator McConnell doesn't move on this. We know who gets hurt the most 
every single time. Small businesses that have been in the family for 
generations could face bankruptcy. Workers will lose jobs as businesses 
are forced to close shop. These businesses and employees did everything 
right. They contributed to these pensions, in many cases over decades.
  Too often, people in this town don't understand the whole point of 
collective bargaining, don't understand the collective bargaining 
process. People give up dollars today for the promise of a secure 
retirement with good healthcare and a pension. They give up dollars 
today with a promise of having a pension and healthcare. These workers' 
lives and livelihoods will be devastated if Congress doesn't do its 
job.
  When I think about the responsibility we have, I think about the 
words of worker Larry Ward at a hearing at the statehouse in Columbus 
last year. He said:

       I don't understand how it is that Congress would even 
     consider asking us to take a cut to my pension, or see it go 
     away entirely, when it had no problems sending billions to 
     the Wall Street crooks who caused this problem in the first 
     place.

  Don't forget that what happened on Wall Street had an impact on these 
pensions.
  He went on to say:

       They used that to pay themselves bonuses. We use our 
     pensions to pay for medicine and food and heat.

  It is bad enough that Wall Street squandered workers' money; it is 
worse that the government that is supposed to look out for these folks 
ignores the promise that was made to these workers. The President--who 
essentially stood by and did nothing--would say it is disgraceful.
  That is why these workers are fighting back. We have kept this on the 
agenda because of them, because they refuse to give up. Workers 
rallied, called, and wrote letters. We all have seen the camo UMWA t-
shirts. These workers have rallied in the name of Butch Lewis, a great 
Cincinnatian who helped lead this fight and passed away far too soon 
while fighting for his fellow workers. His wife, Rita, has continued 
this fight and has become a leader and an inspiration to me and so many 
others. She once told me that the workers in this crisis feel like they 
are invisible. They are not invisible to Senator Manchin, Senator 
Stabenow, or to me. I know they are not invisible to my colleague 
Senator Portman, who has put in months of work in good faith on this 
issue on the committee and continues this year. I know he is committed 
and I am committed, and my colleagues on the floor today--again, 
Senators Manchin, Stabenow, Casey, and Baldwin will be joining us. We 
are committed to these miners, teamsters, these retirees and workers 
and small businesses. We will not give up. We are continuing to work on 
a bipartisan solution.
  It comes back to the dignity of work. When work has dignity, we honor 
the retirement security that people earned. We respect collective 
bargaining. We know collective bargaining created the middle class. I 
urge my colleagues in this body--colleagues with a good pension and 
good healthcare paid for by taxpayers--I urge my colleagues in this 
body to think about those retired workers and the stress they are 
facing.
  Join us. Let's pass a solution that honors their work and keeps our 
promise. If you love this country, you fight for the people who make it 
work.
  I yield to Senator Manchin.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I want to thank my colleague from Ohio, 
Senator Brown, and also Senator Stabenow, Senator Casey, and all those 
who feel as strongly as we do and have constituents in our States who 
really helped build this country and deserve the respect we give them 
and also the hard fight to make sure we do the right thing for them.
  We are here today to bring attention to the issue of American 
workers' pensions. I thank you for allowing me to speak to the ever-
present issue that our retired workers face, which is the security of 
their pensions. My colleagues and I have come to the floor to speak on 
behalf of some of America's hardest workers.
  It has been 285 days since I introduced the American Miners Act, 
which would protect miners' pensions from becoming collateral during 
coal mine bankruptcies. This is something that should have been done. 
It has been on Leader McConnell's desk for quite some time. We could 
have taken care of this a few years ago. We got the healthcare part 
done, but they split it apart, and we weren't able to get the pensions.
  Miners rely on their hard-earned pensions in retirement. They should 
be secured even if the coal companies file bankruptcy. We must act, and 
this cannot happen without bipartisan support. The coal miners, 
autoworkers, Teamsters, steelworkers, and every other worker that 
invest in their pension funds deserve to have stability and security in 
their retirement. The multiemployer pension system in the United States 
is in crisis.
  Approximately 130 multiemployer pension plans, including the United 
Mine Workers of America 1974 Pension Fund, are expected to become 
insolvent in the next few years. The miners' pension fund alone, a 
critical plan that covers 82,000 retired miners--25,000 of those in 
West Virginia and 20,000 fully vested current workers--is projected to 
become insolvent by 2022. Remember that date, 2022. But there is a 
catch to that. We have one major coal company in the United States on 
the fringe of bankruptcy as I speak to you today. If they fall into 
bankruptcy, this whole pension plan for the miners goes into turmoil. 
By September 2020--within a year from now--the coal miners could see 
drastic cuts to their benefits if we don't act. If the UMWA Pension 
Fund becomes insolvent, there will be a snowball effect for the central 
pensions.
  It has been said that the recession of 2007 and 2008 will be a blip 
on the radar screen compared to what this will do to our economy 
nationwide. The companies are going to walk away scot-free. It is 
unacceptable that some of our hardest workers have to beg for the money 
that they put into the pension fund over years and years of hard work.
  Yet this is not only coal miners' pensions. It is bringing attention 
to all the pension plans in America. Everyone deserves to have 
stability in their retirement, especially those who have paid into 
pension plans for decades. This fight is for each and every one of 
them. To be clear, a pension is not just given to these employees. You 
don't just go to work and they say: We are going to give you a pension. 
It is going to be figured into your pay, and it will be deducted from 
your pay for you as the employee to pay part and an employer is 
supposed to match it. Someone is putting in money, someone is taking 
money from someone's paycheck, and they are hopefully putting it into a 
safe place or safe investment.
  How can it be that when they go bankrupt they lose everything? Who 
gets it? Who walks away with their money? That is what we are talking 
about. This funding is set aside from the employee's paycheck 
throughout their career and matched by their employer. Workers invest 
in their pensions. They take a cut in pay over time to ensure that they 
have security in retirement. Rather than taking money home to their 
family, they say: This will be fine. In 20 years from now, 25 years 
from now, 30 years from now, I will have something I can rely on that 
will basically provide stability for my family. It is truly their money 
that we are talking about.

  The law of the land--the law of this great country--allows companies 
to not pay their former employees' hard-earned pensions when they go 
bankrupt. They don't say: Okay, if you are

[[Page S5782]]

going to declare bankruptcy, the first thing you have to do is pay the 
employees. You must pay the people who put their money in. Make sure 
they get their money. That is all. And then we can work out the rest.
  But, no, we don't do it that way. Their CEOs receive bonuses. At the 
bankruptcy hearing, they will get a bonus. All the financial 
institutions get taken care of first. There is nothing left for the 
employee. The person's money is gone. Somebody else got it. It just 
doesn't make any sense at all. It is not who we are as a great country. 
It makes no sense, whatsoever, how the laws evolved into that, unless 
there is pure, unadulterated American greed that allowed this to 
happen.
  We have to reverse it. It is the law of the land. Guess what? We are 
the lawmakers of the land. We are the ones who can change this. This is 
permitted because the courts and our bankruptcy laws continue to allow 
the companies to break their promises to the workers and shed their 
obligations to pay the hard-earned pension benefits. They are able to 
reemerge from bankruptcy in good financial shape. They are able to 
shirk all their responsibilities and take all of somebody else's money 
and come out of this OK. They are ready to do business again.
  I am sorry. The same old-same old is not going to happen. Then the 
Federal Government is left with the burden to provide a percentage of 
the pensions owed to these employees. This comes because we have 
Federal guarantees. That is about ready to go bankrupt, too. We are 
going to break it because of people not taking care of the people who 
did the work. It comes straight out of the pockets of everyday 
Americans from their taxes instead of from the companies who walk away 
without managing their obligations to their employees and families. 
That is why my colleagues and I have come together today to bring to 
light these issues that affects 10.6 million Americans.
  In West Virginia, every time a mine closes, the miners get the rug 
pulled out from under them. It has been happening far too long. Many 
lose their jobs and livelihoods, and many others lost their healthcare 
and pensions. This year alone, 1,200 coal miners, their widows, and 
family members could also lose their healthcare coverage.
  For those of you who think this is just another Big Government 
program, let me share a little history with you. In 1946, due to the 
horrendous working conditions our miners faced every day, there was a 
nationwide strike coming right out of World War II. It brought our 
Nation's economy to its knees. President Truman knew this could not 
continue. He dispatched the Secretary of Interior Julius Krug to meet 
with the president of the United Mine Workers of America, John L. 
Lewis. They ended that strike by signing the Krug-Lewis agreement which 
created a retirement fund and healthcare benefits for our Nation's coal 
miners and their families that had the full backing of the United 
States Government. What we are saying is it was so important that we 
continue to work and produce the energy this country needed--basically, 
it wasn't the government giving them anything. They were saying that, 
for every ton of coal that was sold, a portion of that revenue from the 
coal that was sold would have to go towards the miners' pension and the 
miners' retirement.
  Over 70 years ago, President Harry Truman recognized the importance 
of coal that our miners produced for this country and promised that the 
government would guarantee our coal miners' benefits in return of their 
services. He was guaranteeing that money would be there for them. In 
turn, our coal miners propelled the American economy, ushered in 
decades of economic growth, started an energy boom that made the U.S. a 
superpower, and helped our Nation to victory in two world wars. This 
agreement was a sacred promise between workers and our country, and it 
captured the very best of America.
  Unfortunately, over 70 years later, we are still fighting to make 
good on that promise. After securing healthcare benefits for retired 
coal miners, we proved that Congress can work together and put partisan 
politics aside. It is a philosophy that I have followed throughout my 
life in public service--in the West Virginia State Legislature, as a 
former Governor of the State of West Virginia, and now as a Senator 
representing the State of West Virginia.
  I know that my fellow colleagues here today are fighting for 
solutions with me. I am asking all of our colleagues here in the Senate 
and in the House to join us in this fight. To be successful, we must 
address this in a bipartisan way. It is not who we are to be divided as 
we have been. It is not who we are as a country to have this toxic 
atmosphere that we come to. I tell people that I go to work in a 
hostile work environment every day. People don't want to work together. 
They are not expected to work together anymore. It is the norm to 
fight.
  That is not true where I come from. We never got anything 
accomplished by fighting in West Virginia. I hope that, together, we 
can work out a solution to this terrible issue facing our Nation and 
our workers so that they can retire peacefully without a constant worry 
of losing their hard-earned pensions.
  Let me tell you what the average pension paid to a miner is when they 
retire--and most of this goes to the widows because the miners have 
passed away. It is around $600 a month. They worked 20 and 30 years in 
the mines. This is not a windfall for anybody. It is a sustenance that 
just absolutely keeps them alive so that they can retire and live 
peacefully. That is all they are asking for.
  I am proud to stand here today with my fellow colleagues, and we are 
going to fight to keep our commitment to our citizens of our respective 
States in this great country.
  I am glad to yield to my dear friend and my colleague from Michigan, 
Senator Stabenow.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The Senator from Michigan.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague. I think he 
stepped to the back. No one has been a better champion for our miners 
and their families than Senator Joe Manchin. Every single day, he 
brings to us the needs of our coal miners and people who have literally 
fueled a generation beyond our economy. I want to thank Senator Manchin 
for his leadership, and also thank Senator Brown for his leadership as 
well. The two of them together are leading our efforts.
  I am proud to be joining with them to focus on an issue that is 
hurting working men and women across Michigan and across the country. 
It is an issue that, quite frankly, I can't believe that, in the 
Senate, we are having to actually talk about why people should get the 
pension that they have paid into their whole life. I can't believe that 
we even have to have this as an issue or the fact that we are having to 
fight to get the attention of the majority leader and the majority in 
the Senate who actually bring up legislation to help people get the 
pension they have paid into their whole working life. This ought to be 
a given. We used to think it was. It is wrong that it is not today.
  For generations, millions of working people built better lives for 
themselves and their families with jobs that provided more than just a 
paycheck. Folks worked really hard, and in exchange for a job well 
done, they could count on basic benefits, including healthcare and a 
secure retirement, coming through a pension that they paid into while 
they were working. These workers didn't just build their own families. 
They literally built the middle class.
  I can tell you, coming from Michigan, that is exactly what happened. 
They built our economy. They built our American way of life, and they 
just assumed that America would keep its promises, that the companies 
would keep their promises, that our laws would be set up in a way that 
they could trust would work, and that the money they were putting into 
a pension and retirement security would be there for themselves and 
their families. I don't think that is too much to ask.
  Many of these coal miners, truck drivers, construction workers, 
autoworkers, and others gave up raises--as my colleagues already talked 
about--in exchange for retirement security. They would negotiate, and 
they would say that, rather than get that money in my paycheck now, I 
want to put it into my retirement so that I know it is there for myself 
and my family going forward.
  They held up their end of the bargain. Unfortunately, that bargain is

[[Page S5783]]

now crumbling for too many. Imagine what it would be like to have to 
cut your family budget 50 percent or 60 percent or even 70 percent and 
still get the bills paid and keep food on the table.
  I talked to a gentleman from Michigan named John who lives in Monroe. 
He doesn't have to imagine that because he and his family are living 
that every day. John is a retired diesel mechanic whose pension 
benefits were slashed 72 percent. For any one of us, imagine if our 
incomes were slashed 72 percent. That started for him in January 2018.

  As you can only imagine, the past 2 years have been a tremendous 
hardship for him and for his family. They have been using their 
savings, as he said to me, to pay the bills for the past 2 years. They 
have cut everything nonessential and are now cutting even the 
essentials from their budget. John and Kathy, his wife, used to be able 
to help out their children, including a son who is disabled, but they 
no longer have the means to do that, which is something that is really 
devastating for them.
  John said: ``The mental strain and anxiety we are enduring because of 
the loss of a guaranteed income has become increasingly difficult.''
  Kathy added that it is hard for people to understand what it is like 
to live on just one-quarter of the income that one used to have.
  Kathy and John aren't alone. That is why we are on the floor. That is 
why we are asking--demanding--that action be taken on their behalf. 
Between 1 million and 1.5 million American workers and retirees are in 
pension plans that are at serious risk of becoming insolvent within the 
next 20 years. As well, by the end of this year, as Senator Manchin 
said, more than 1,200 coal miners and their family members could lose 
their healthcare coverage.
  These hard-working Americans deserve better than this. Right now, 
they are just waiting and waiting and waiting for the U.S. Senate to 
act--for the Senate majority leader and the Republican majority to 
decide it is important to act on their behalf. It has now been 83 days 
since the House of Representatives passed the Rehabilitation for 
Multiemployer Pensions Act--83 days. We have plenty of time to take 
this up on the Senate floor. We have plenty of time to take it up. 
There needs to be a sense of urgency about doing it because John and 
Kathy certainly feel that sense of urgency as they are trying to pay 
the bills and do what they can to support their children. They feel 
that every day.
  This bill is the companion legislation to what we have called the 
Butch Lewis Act. Thanks to Senator Brown for introducing this important 
legislation, I am proud to be a cosponsor along with many of my 
colleagues. It has also been 285 days, as Senator Manchin said, since 
Senators Manchin, Kaine, Warner, Brown, Jones, and Casey introduced the 
American Miners Act. So we have two bills in front of us--one that has 
been held up now for 285 days and one that has been held up for 83 
days. We need to have action.
  The American Miners Act secures retired miners' pensions and saves 
their healthcare benefits. It is past time for Senate Majority Leader 
McConnell to stop stalling and to take action on behalf of the folks 
who did nothing more than work their whole lives, created the middle 
class of this country, and believed their country and believed the 
companies when they said, if they paid into pensions, they would be 
there. Hard-working American families have been waiting way too long.
  I have always believed that a pension was a promise. It is just plain 
and simple. It is a promise, and it is a promise that deserves to be 
kept. People like John, who have worked hard to earn their retirement 
benefits, shouldn't have to worry about paying their power bills, 
putting food on their tables, or keeping their homes. They should know 
that their pensions will be there for them--the pensions they paid into 
all the time they were working. They have earned them over a lifetime 
of work, and those pensions are promises that need to be kept.
  I urge my Republican colleagues to join us in helping to keep that 
promise for John and for the hard-working Americans like him. We could 
do this very quickly this week if we would come together and have a 
sense of urgency about what is affecting folks who have worked hard all 
of their lives, who are now retired, and who just need to know that 
those pensions are going to be there for themselves and their families.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.


                    Unanimous Consent Request--S. 27

  Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask 
unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from the 
further consideration of S. 27, the American Miners Act of 2019; that 
the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be 
considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no 
intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there an objection?
  The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, in reserving the right to object, let me 
give a short explanation.
  The issues facing miners' pension plans are of critical importance, 
but I have to tell my colleagues that so are the issues that face a 
large number of multiemployer plans, and one of the biggest that is of 
concern is the Central States Pension Plan.
  Since last year, the Committee on Finance has been working on a 
bipartisan basis to address the issues that face the multiemployer 
system. We are nearing the completion of a comprehensive proposal that 
will include financial assistance to the critical and declining 
multiemployer pension plans and will provide long-term solvency to 
these plans and to the longer term solvency of the Pension Benefit 
Guaranty Corporation, or, as we know it around here, the PBGC. That 
proposal will include financial relief for miners and mining companies 
because the situation with the miners' pensions should be handled in 
the context of these broader, multiemployer plan reforms.
  The Senator from West Virginia is a person with whom I work very 
often and like personally, but I must object to this and take the 
course of action of dealing with this in a larger context rather than 
just for miners' pensions, so I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, if I could respond briefly to the Senator 
from Iowa, the reason for my request, as far as its being urgent, is 
that we are on the cusp of having one major coal company go bankrupt. 
As we speak right now, it is out there trying to restructure, but if it 
declares bankruptcy, our timetable on our miners' pensions moves from 
2022 to 2020. If the miners go down first, it will create a whole 
tumbling effect with the others. This one can keep us from going into 
insolvency with the PBGC. All we are trying to do is to prevent that 
from happening because this is going to move very quickly, 
unfortunately, if this one large coal company goes bankrupt.
  That is why I brought it to the floor today, sir, with all due 
respect.
  I hope the Senator and I will talk some more about this and that he 
will understand the gravity of what we are dealing with because it is 
really concerning to me right now.
  I thank the Senator.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I heard what my friend said. I still 
stick by what I told him, which is that we are working on a plan to 
deal with multiemployers in many different situations of which the 
Senator's is a very important part.
  Mr. MANCHIN. I respect that, sir.
  I look forward to working with the Senator.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.