On the recordDecember 17, 2010
I would like that thank Chairman Baucus for his continuing work in helping me address an issue important to airline workers whose employers went bankrupt after September 11, 2001. I first started working on this issue in 2007 when I introduced legislation to allow employees of bankrupt commercial airlines to roll their bankruptcy payments into individual retirement accounts to provide for a retirement savings option to those airline workers whose defined benefit plans were terminated or frozen in bankruptcy proceedings. My legislation attracted bipartisan support from my colleagues, and in 2008, The Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act, WRERA, was enacted into law, and we worked together to include a provision to allow airline workers to rollover bankruptcy payments into a Roth IRA only. While this was an important step, it is also important to take the next step and allow workers the additional option to rollover bankruptcy payments into a traditional IRA--an option typically available for everyone when deciding which retirement vehicle is right for them.
