Political Quotes

“I have worked with my constituents. I have had I don't know how many meetings with members of labor unions across Pennsylvania to talk about this issue and get their input as to how we can deal with the problem of multiemployer plans to make sure we improve their solvency and increase the reliability of those plans for our pensioners. It was an unprecedented effort. I thank Jen Vesey from my staff for the work she has done. I thank in particular the folks from the Pennsylvania building trades and Teamsters who have been terrific in trying to work through some of these very tough issues to get a consensus bill that I am hopeful we can not only pass here in the Senate, obviously in the next hour or two, but also to get something passed permanently by the end of the year. One of the key concepts folks were concerned about was the concept of an early warning system for multiemployer plans. Under current law, too often we don't know about economic conditions of these plans until they are facing extreme financial pressure. As we have said, sometimes the remedies are too late to solve the problem, and we end up with the situation of people not having sufficient retirement. In this bill, we do address this problem. However, I have heard from labor and management representatives of the multiemployer plans. They have expressed concerns about the approach to this taken in S. 1783.…”