[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[EXTENSI]
[Page 16341]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION TO PROTECT MULTI-EMPLOYER PENSION PLANS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOSEPH CROWLEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, December 1, 2014

  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, on January 1, the laws governing the 
pension plans for over 10 million Americans will expire, threatening 
the retirement security for these families and causing great 
uncertainty for their employers who sponsor these retirement vehicles.
  These pension plans, known as multi-employer pension plans, are 
traditional pension plans that have provided millions of Americans a 
secure retirement for several generations.
  Multi-employer pension plans are retirement plans negotiated by a 
union with a group of employers, typically in the same industry. 
Collective bargaining contracts say how much the employers must 
contribute to the plans for their employees. The plans are run by 
trustees selected by the union and the employers. The trustees 
typically determine the amounts that the plans will pay in lifetime 
monthly benefits.
  While fewer workers may be utilizing these traditional pensions than 
in the past, Congress should be taking steps to bolster these 
traditional pension plans and help to expand their availability between 
businesses and workers, not slow walking their demise by allowing 
important funding rules to expire.
  While this bill is a simple one-year extension of the expiring rules, 
these rules provide needed certainty to businesses who offer pension 
plans to their workers. Without this certainty, businesses will be 
subject to outdated, unfamiliar rules that could threaten not only 
their employees' pensions, but also the basic sustainability of their 
business operations.
  Specifically, current multi-employer pension funding rules stipulate 
that if a pension plan becomes underfunded, or unable to meet its 
negotiated obligations, the trustees of the pension plan are given a 
set amount of time to create a restructuring plan to ensure that 
negotiated benefits can be paid out over the long term to employees. 
These pension plan trustees, who are appointed by both labor and 
management, can use this time to create a long-term framework to ensure 
all obligations are met. This works to the benefit of employers and 
employees.
  But if these funding rules are allowed to expire on January 1 and a 
pension plan becomes underfunded, instead of giving labor and 
management the tools to create a sustainable path forward, the law 
would demand excessive cash payments and excise fees from employers. 
Forcing companies to make massive cash infusions into their pension 
plan while also facing new government-levied excise taxes will not 
guarantee a fully funded pension plan for their workers. Rather, it 
increases the likelihood that the employer will be forced to abandon 
their pension plan. Abandoning pension plans does not benefit either 
employers or employees.
  Make no mistake, this legislation should not be seen as a long-term 
remedy to the issues involving retirement security. Rather, this bill 
is a simple extension of the law to prevent uncertainty and turmoil to 
employers, workers, and retirees.
  Next year, the Congress should re-examine the nation's pension laws--
those governing individual company plans as well as these labor-
management negotiated plans.
  Enactment of this bill will not cost the federal taxpayers any money, 
but lack of action on this bill will cost both businesses and families, 
who could lose the security that these traditional retirement plans 
provide.
  I encourage my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation 
that provides certainty to employers, and protects the retirement 
security that workers and retirees have labored for during their 
careers.

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