John Kerry: “today we are debating the Pension Security and Transparency Act of 2005 which is the culmination of the efforts of the…”

“today we are debating the Pension Security and Transparency Act of 2005 which is the culmination of the efforts of the Finance Committee and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to improve the funding of both single and multiemployer defined benefit plans. I commend Senators Grassley, Baucus, Enzi, and Kennedy for their efforts in reaching bipartisan compromise legislation. We all agree that defined benefit plans are underfunded and that this issue needs to be addressed. At the end of fiscal year 2005, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation had $22.8 billion in underfunding in its single employer program. The PBGC's liabilities for fiscal year 2006 are expected to be much higher. If other liabilities that the PBGC assumed after the end of the fiscal year were counted, the 2005 deficit would have been $25.7 billion. We cannot allow the underfunding of pensions to continue. This legislation takes the right approach by striking the appropriate balance. We want to protect employees, but we do not want to make defined benefit plans so restrictive that employers will not offer them. The focus of the Pension Security and Transparency Act is to improve the funding of pension plans and to provide more disclosure, but this legislation does address other important pension issues. The Senate Finance Committee has reported out pension legislation in past Congresses that was not addressed by the full Senate.…”