Tom Harkin: “this amendment has some history in the Senate and the House. I will try to enlighten Senators as to the background and…”

“this amendment has some history in the Senate and the House. I will try to enlighten Senators as to the background and what it is about. Hopefully, we can have support for the amendment and adopt it. Basically, it stops the Treasury Department from moving forward with a regulation that would allow companies to convert from a traditional defined benefit pension plan to a cash balance plan in a way that would hurt older workers. We are not saying they can't promulgate a rule that wouldn't allow a company to go from a defined benefit plan to a cash balance plan. We are just saying, they should not do it in a way that hurts older workers. Let me talk about that a little bit and what is behind it. I am not totally opposed to cash balance plans. Some designs can be very good. Some can be a great deal better for younger workers, for example, than an uninsured defined contribution plan. Some are not. I am not saying we should prohibit any cash balance plans from existing. However, we need to make sure employers put in place a fair and equitable manner for treating these. I have been following this issue closely for several years.”