[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21927]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  2004

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 9, 2003

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2989) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Transportation and 
     Treasury, and independent agencies for the fiscal year ending 
     September 30, 2004, and for other purposes:

  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Sanders 
amendment, which would protect the pensions of older workers who have 
seen their retirement benefits slashed by as much as 50 percent as a 
result of age discriminatory cash balance pension conversions.
  On July 31, a federal court ruled that IBM's cash balance pension 
plan violates federal anti-age discrimination law. The court found that 
IBM knew that older workers would lose up to 47 percent of their 
pensions under the cash balance conversion. This ruling was a welcome 
outcome for the 130,000 IBM employees who were represented in the 
case--and for the millions of other Americans whose employers have 
already converted to one of these age discriminatory plans or might in 
the future.
  The Treasury Department is moving ahead with proposed regulations 
that permit the same cash balance pension plans that the court ruled 
are illegal. The Sanders amendment would specifically prohibit the IRS 
from issuing regulations that would conflict with this federal court 
ruling.
  It has now been nearly two years since the collapse of Enron, more 
than a year since the collapse of WorldCom, and what has this body done 
to protect the pensions of American workers? Not a thing. We have 
passed legislation--legislation that fails to allow employees the right 
to fully diversify their stock, legislation that fails to hold 
executives who are fiduciaries of the pension plan accountable if they 
violate the law--executives like Ken Lay. We have passed legislation 
that allows employers to give the same conflicted financial advice the 
Republicans tried to push on the American workers last fall before the 
Enron scandal broke.
  And today, if the Administration's rule is allowed to go forward, we 
head back down the same road. With companies like Xerox, Georgia 
Pacific and the Bank of Boston already having switched from traditional 
defined benefit plans to cash balance pension plans that leave older 
employees with their pensions slashed by up to 50 percent, this rule 
would actually make it easier for more companies to adopt such 
practices. It would make it easier for companies like Motorola to put 
another $38 million into the retirement funds of their executives while 
they contribute not a cent to their workers' already underfunded 
pension fund. Quite frankly, this rule does absolutely nothing to limit 
runaway executive compensation or protect employees from these unfair 
benefit cuts.
  It seems obvious to everyone but this Republican majority and 
Administration that our pension rules do not do enough to protect 
helpless employees. It does not protect them from being locked out of 
their pension plans while their life savings go down the drain or 
protect them from venal executives who would take their money and run. 
The majority seems to think that is somehow acceptable behavior.
  Today, with the Sanders amendment, we have an opportunity to protect 
the working men and women in this country. We can tell them today that, 
yes, we want to protect your pensions because the fruits of your life's 
work have to be there for you and your family when you retire. That is 
what this country is built on. That is what our values are. That is the 
direction we should go in.
  I urge my colleagues to support the Sanders amendment.

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