[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 181 (Wednesday, November 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PENSIONS

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, yesterday we got another reminder of the 
urgency in the pension crisis facing more than 1 million workers and 
retirees with the news that Dean Foods is filing for bankruptcy. The 
company is part of the Central States Pension Fund. The bankruptcy puts 
the pension fund that much closer to insolvency, that much closer to 
having to turn to the PBGC for help, and that much closer to knocking 
down the dominoes that could bring down our whole multiemployer pension 
system and potentially and even likely trigger a recession. We have to 
act now for the sake of our economy, for the sake of thousands of small 
businesses, and for the sake of a million Americans who are on the 
verge of facing massive cuts to the pensions they earned.
  This crisis affects thousands of Ohioans. It affects the massive 
Central States Pension Plan, the United Workers Pension Plan, the 
Ironworkers Local 17 Pension Plan, the Southwest Ohio carpenters, the 
bakers and confectioners, and many others. It touches every State in 
this Nation. If the system collapses, it won't be just retirees who 
will feel the pain. Current workers will be stuck paying into pensions 
they will never receive. Small businesses will be left drowning in 
pension liability they can't afford to pay. That will have ripple 
effects throughout the economy. If we do nothing, this can trigger a 
recession on par with the housing crisis. We know who gets hurt the 
worst. It is the small businesses, workers, and the retirees who are 
counting on these pensions to survive.
  People in this town so often don't understand the collective 
bargaining process. People give up dollars today at the bargaining 
table for the promise of a secure retirement with good healthcare and a 
pension. These workers' lives and livelihoods will be devastated if 
Congress doesn't do its job.
  I think about the words of Larry Ward at a hearing in Ohio 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 to see it 
     going away, when it had no problem sending billions to the 
     Wall Street crooks who caused this problem in the first 
     place. They used that to pay themselves bonuses. We use our 
     pensions to pay for medicine and food and heat.

  Think about that. Wall Street uses this pension money for bonuses. 
Mr. Ward and his other workers and retirees use their pensions to pay 
for medicine and food and heat. There is something wrong with this 
picture. It is bad enough that Wall Street squandered workers' money; 
it is worse that the government, which is supposed to look out for 
these folks, is ignoring the promise to these workers.
  I know there are Senators in both parties working in good faith to 
fix this, but this bankruptcy is a reminder that we are running short 
on time to come up with the bipartisan solution we need.
  It comes back to the dignity of work. When work has dignity, we honor 
the retirement security that people earned. When work has dignity, we 
fight for those workers, we honor workers, and we respect workers.
  I urge my colleagues in this body, let's pass a solution that honors 
their work, that honors the dignity of work, and that keeps our promise 
to the people who make this country work.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.

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