Chuck Grassley: “Today, in the Senate, as you can tell from the debate, we are considering a bill that is critical to our Nation's…”

“Today, in the Senate, as you can tell from the debate, we are considering a bill that is critical to our Nation's pension system and is necessary to help this economy as a whole, primarily because of airlines being so essential to the economy of the United States of America, although it affects other segments of the economy. This bill, H.R. 3108, is entitled the Pension Funding Equity Act. It provides a temporary 2-year fix to the interest rate companies are required to use in their pension calculations. Without this legislation, companies will be required to make pension contributions based on the 30-year Treasury bond interest rate, even though the Government stopped issuing 30-year bonds way back in the year 2001. Clearly, this is a rule, under the 30-year bond rule, that does not make sense anymore, so we have to change the pension laws to conform. This legislation will fix that by adopting a conservative, long-term corporate bond rate for the next 2 years.”