Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the financial crisis facing the private sector multiemployer pension system calls for comprehensive reform and getting it done soon. The crisis is severe and growing worse every day. Would you believe about 125 multiemployer plans are in so-called critical and declining financial status? These plans report that they will become insolvent over the next two decades. There will be a lot of people without a retirement plan if we don't act. Several large plans, including the United Mine Workers Pension Fund and the large Central States Pension Fund, predict these plans will become insolvent in the next few years. That is not a very comfortable environment for those retirees. This will leave more than 1.3 million participants without the pension benefits they have been promised and, of course, worked for probably throughout their whole lives. In just my State of Iowa, the benefits of close to 10,000 participants of multiemployer plans are at risk if the system fails. Ten thousand Iowans being affected by what we do or don't do, obviously, gets my attention. That figure of 10,000 will represent over $70 million in benefits paid out annually that these individuals rely on in retirement. More broadly, another large group of multiemployer plans are in critical status.…”