Lynn C. Woolsey: “H.R. 1594 is a totally unnecessary bill. Can someone tell me how does this bill protect pensions? Not by providing funds…”

“H.R. 1594 is a totally unnecessary bill. Can someone tell me how does this bill protect pensions? Not by providing funds for the Department of Labor's pension and welfare benefits administration, that's for sure. In fact, this bill cuts funds for this office, which does protect workers' pensions against underfunding and fraud. You may hear that this bill protects pensions by prohibiting the Department of Labor from promoting economically targeted investments, or ETI's. But how do ETI's place pensions at risk? After all, we already have a law on the books, the Employment Retirement Income Security Act, better known as ERISA, that requires pension plan investors to act solely in the interest of their beneficiaries when making investment decisions. So if a pension fund does choose to invest in an ETI, it must put the financial interests of the pension beneficiaries first. And, I ask, what's wrong with investing American workers' money in America's infrastructure; America's jobs; and America's economy. Since when is America a bad investment? If this bill passes something very real will happen. Pension funds that have invested in local economic growth and in our communities will begin investing overseas.”