[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11740]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            UNFRIENDLY SKIES

  (Mr. PRICE of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, the airline pension crisis has 
proven that the skies are not so friendly for many airline employees 
getting ready to retire.
  Retirement plans that included dreams prepared for over a lifetime 
are now replaced with just trying to make ends meet. An airline dumping 
their pension plan is not a solution. This jeopardizes the retirement 
for thousands and maybe millions of hard-working Americans and 
increases the burden on our government and taxpayers.
  Over the past 2 years, the PBGC and the American taxpayers have 
assumed close to $10 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, $10 
billion.
  Is this a winning formula? I do not think so. Just ask over 100,000 
United employees having to plan for a future that looks much cloudier 
today.
  H.R. 2106 allows airline carriers to adopt new funding rules for 
their defined pension benefit systems. This plan, a solution, requires 
airline carriers to meet their obligations and decreases the need for a 
taxpayer bailout.
  Madam Speaker, this is a solution that could not come at a better 
time. This legislation is a win-win-win solution, for the airlines, for 
airline employees, and most importantly, for the American taxpayer.

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