Political Quotes

“Madam President, since I reclaimed chairmanship of the Finance Committee at the start of this Congress, one of my top priorities has been to fix the failing multiemployer pension system and to help secure retirement benefits of more than 10 million workers and retirees in these multiemployer plans. This is especially important since 150 multiemployer plans have failed or terminated, and many others are expected to run out of money in the coming 10 years. In the decade after that, many more plans are expected to fail. In all, more than 1.5 million Americans would be affected by the failure of these multiemployer pension plans. Now, the coronavirus has had its effect on these plans as well. We don't yet have a firm read on how much the economic downturn has affected plans' funding or even the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's insurance fund backing up those plans that have failed. We expect more details on those issues later this summer. Now, one thing that we do know for sure is that this problem is only going to get worse and more costly to resolve if we wait longer to solve it. That is why all this concentration at this point. Now we have a real opportunity to get it fixed--and hopefully this year. Last November, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and I released a draft plan to reform the multiemployer pension system, protect retirees, and at the same time secure the PBGC's insurance fund.…”