[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 140 (Thursday, August 6, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5240-S5241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Multiemployer Pension System

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, the public health crisis and the economic 
crisis that are happening right now are not happening in a vacuum.
  All the damage caused by the coronavirus and the President's failures 
is layered on top of all the existing problems of our country, 
including the crisis we have been facing for years in the multiemployer 
pension system.
  More than a million American workers and retirees were already in 
danger of losing the retirement security that they earned. These are 
people who did everything right. They spent years working on assembly 
lines, bagging groceries, driving trucks, working hard to keep this 
economy going and to provide for their families. Money came out of 
every single one of their paychecks to pay into a pension system.
  People in Washington don't understand the collective bargaining 
process. They either don't understand it or don't care to understand 
it. People give up dollars today at the bargaining table for the 
promise of a secure retirement, with healthcare and a pension.
  This crisis affects thousands of Ohioans and people in Indiana, the 
Presiding Officer's State. It affects the massive Central States 
Pension Plan, the Bricklayers Local 7, the Ironworkers Local 17, the 
Ohio Southwest Carpenters Pension Plan, the Bakers and Confectioners 
Pension Plan, and on and on and on.
  It touches every single State in the country. We are talking about 
our entire multiemployer pension system. If it collapses, it will not 
just be retirees who 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. Small businesses 
that have been in the family for generations could face bankruptcy.
  I have seen those companies: Spangler Candy in Williams County, OH; 
Smucker's Preserves in Orrville, OH. We have seen these companies that 
have been family companies paying into this pension plan for 
generations, and workers lose jobs if businesses close up shop.
  The effect will ripple through the entire economy. It is not only 
union businesses that participate in these plans that will close their 
doors. It would devastate small communities across the industrial 
heartland. Small businesses in these communities already are hurt 
because of this virus.
  These pension plans were already in danger prior to February or 
March, or even April or May, when the President decided that this was a 
crisis. Now the economic emergency we are in has put them in a worse 
position.
  The House did its part repeatedly. First, they passed the Butch Lewis 
Act. More than 2 months ago, they passed the Heroes Act, which includes 
a pension solution.
  But under Senator McConnell, the Senate has done nothing. It is time 
for us to do our part.
  Leader McConnell has refused to do anything on pensions. We could 
have fixed this last year. He chose not to. He didn't address it in the 
HEALS Act that he introduced last week, and he didn't address it in the 
CARES Act that we passed back in March.
  There are reports the President, who has not been a friend of 
workers--putting it mildly--was fine with including a multiemployer 
pension fix in the CARES Act if Leader McConnell wanted it. But Leader 
McConnell stopped it, and the President wasn't willing to step in. He 
is supposed to lead the country, but he has outsourced his decision 
making to Senator McConnell.
  The Senate must act. If the entire multiemployer pension system 
collapses, it will make our economic crisis worse. We knew before this 
pandemic that the pension system could collapse. It is only more likely 
to fail now. If that happens, we know who gets hurt the most. It is not 
the Wall Street banks that squandered workers' money. It is small 
businesses. It is workers. It is employees who did everything right. 
Their lives and livelihoods will be devastated if Congress doesn't do 
our job.
  Workers and retirees in Ohio and around the country have rallied in 
the name of Butch Lewis, a great Ohioan who helped lead this fight and 
passed away far too soon, fighting for his fellow workers. His wife, 
Rita Lewis, has continued his fight and has become a leader and an 
inspiration to so many of us.
  Rita once told me that retirees and workers struggling with this 
crisis feel like they are invisible. These Americans aren't invisible 
to me. They shouldn't be invisible to this body.
  They aren't invisible to Speaker Pelosi or Leader Schumer. They are 
not invisible to Senator Smith, who is from Minnesota and has done 
yeoman's work on this; or Senator Peters from Michigan, who has spoken 
out and fought for better laws; or Chairman Neal in the House; or 
Chairman Scott from Virginia in the House; and many of my colleagues 
who worked for years now trying to find a bipartisan solution.
  We are not giving up. As we know, it comes back to the dignity of 
work. When work has dignity, we honor the retirement security people 
earn. When you love this country, you fight for the people who make it 
work.
  I urge my colleagues in this body--colleagues with healthcare and 
retirement plans paid for by taxpayers--to think about these retired 
workers and the stress--on top of the stress of the coronavirus--they 
are facing.
  Join us. Let's pass a solution that honors their work, that honors 
the dignity of work, and that keeps our promise.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, all postcloture time 
has expired.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Cronan 
nomination?
  Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander) and the Senator from Tennessee (Mrs. 
Blackburn).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. 
Alexander) would have voted ``yea.''
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) 
is necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote or to change their vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 55, nays 42, as follows:

[[Page S5241]]

  


                      [Rollcall Vote No. 157 Ex.]

                                YEAS--55

     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Loeffler
     Manchin
     McConnell
     McSally
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sinema
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--42

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--3

     Alexander
     Blackburn
     Duckworth
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the 
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
  The Senator from Alaska.

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