Jay Rockefeller: “this afternoon I will vote to adopt the pension reform legislation before the Senate. However, I do so with serious…”

“this afternoon I will vote to adopt the pension reform legislation before the Senate. However, I do so with serious reservations. The reforms in this bill are critical for both pension security and economic growth. Congress cannot allow April 15 to pass without updating the interest rate on which pension liabilities are based. As constructive as this legislation is, it is incomplete. This bill fails to address the needs of multi-employer pension plans. I will support the pension improvements we have before us today, but I will continue to fight for similar relief for the millions of employees who were left behind in this unfortunately partisan process. It is not an exaggeration to say that the bill before us today is critical. If the Senate fails to pass this legislation today, then next week businesses will be required to make contributions to their pension plans based on an outdated interest rate. If we require companies to make billions of dollars in overpayments to their pension plans, then we are hurting economic growth and ultimately undermining the plans. I do not want workers to lose their pension benefits, because their employers determined that they could not comply with unreasonable funding rules. This conference report also provides much needed relief from deficit reduction contributions (DRC), especially for airlines and steel companies.”