Political Quotes

“I greatly respect the Senator from Iowa. I know he may have to leave, but I do have to tell him I disagree with several things he said. First, the point he raised: Why wasn't I in the Finance Committee stating my position? I am not a member of that committee and I do not know the procedure that was followed by the committee. I will tell you, in this Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill, this is the only pension provision. To think this is a pension bill and we should have been forewarned that airline pensions would be part of the discussion about keeping America's skies safer and air travel safer came as somewhat of a surprise. I learned of this amendment last week. I have known for a long time the position of the chairman and ranking member in opposition to my position on this issue, and I knew the day would come when we would revisit it. But there are several things here which I think have to be said: First, freezing a pension plan might not sound like much unless you are a retiree. A frozen pension, which is what we are talking about with some airlines, would disqualify new workers from qualifying for the pension and restrict the airline from expanding any benefits under the retirement plan. That is a frozen plan. That is what happened with several airlines as they faced and went into bankruptcy. They froze their plans. They said to their retirees: Times are tough. We cannot cover new employees. We cannot give you anything more; it is frozen.”