Jon Kyl: “I want to express my great disappointment with this conference agreement and to explain why I will vote against it. This…”

“I want to express my great disappointment with this conference agreement and to explain why I will vote against it. This legislation, H.R. 3108, was originally intended to provide a temporary solution to a legitimate and serious problem facing all defined benefit pension plans--the interest rate used to calculate funding liabilities, the 30-year Treasury bond, is no longer being issued by the Federal Government, and consequently the rate has dropped to a point that companies would be forced to contribute far in excess of what is necessary to their pension plans if Congress does not provide a remedy. I have always supported efforts to make this necessary change to the interest rate and, in fact, I believe that President Bush put forward a reasonable permanent solution last year. Because of disagreements over that permanent interest rate change, however, Congress was forced to seek a temporary solution to give us additional time to resolve our differences. H.R. 3108, as originally approved by the House, only included temporary interest rate relief; and that is all it ever should have included.”