Thomas Daschle: “the conference report on the Pension bill is another example of a broken legislative process. We passed a good bill in…”

“the conference report on the Pension bill is another example of a broken legislative process. We passed a good bill in the Senate. There was bipartisan cooperation. Two committees-- Chairs and Rankings--worked together in a constructive manner. This bill garnered overwhelming support here in the Senate, passing 86-9. On the Democratic side, there was concern about having this bill go to conference. Too often in the past several months, we have seen the will of the Senate disregarded by House Republican leaders eager to rewrite bills in conference. Our colleagues on the other side said no, that the Senate conferees would advance the Senate position on the main issue of disagreement on multi-employer plans. Under the Senate bill 100 percent of multi-employer plans were covered. The House had no provision to protect multi-employer plans. We expected some give and take, some compromise. And we reached a good faith agreement. The Senate bending over backward to accommodate the House, going from 100 percent coverage, down to 20 percent of multiemployer plans in the most dire circumstances. After an agreement was seemingly reached, the White House stepped in and told Republican conferees that they could not reach a compromise. They had to ignore what the Senate passed and fall in line. The result is the conference report before us which covers only a tiny fraction--3 percent--of multi-employer plans.”