May 22, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 97 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E473-E474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





      HEALTH AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY OMNIBUS EMERGENCY SOLUTIONS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. GRACE F. NAPOLITANO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 15, 2020

  Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Heroes Act and 
the important programs in the bill that will help our first responders, 
health care workers, small businesses, and cities address this 
pandemic.
  Although the bill includes critical provisions to address the pension 
crisis by providing additional funding and resources to multi-employer 
pensions, I am very concerned that it includes language regarding 
composite pension plans that is controversial within the labor and 
pension community.
  There are many who believe composite plans would provide workers with 
less benefits and more risk, and they contend that if these new 
composite plans existed during this COVID crisis, the value of their 
plans would have dramatically eroded.
  The Obama Administration in 2016 strongly opposed composite plan 
legislation that was nearly identical to the GROW Act. The then 
National Economic Council, PBGC, and Departments of Treasury and Labor 
sent to the Hill a position paper that explained that composite 
legislation would put existing pension benefits at greater risk, result 
in less dependable and transparent retirement benefits, and deepen the 
insolvency crisis at the PBGC. The position paper urged Congress not to 
include composite plan legislation in a package because ``such complex 
legislation deserves, at minimum, appropriate bicameral hearings and 
time for analysis and debate.''
  I hope that the Senate will look at this issue closely as there 
should be more debate and review of this proposal. I include in the 
Record statements regarding composite pension plans from a coalition of 
labor unions and the Pension Rights Center.

       Statement by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and 
     Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), Directors Guild of 
     America (DGA), International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, 
     International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), 
     International Assoc. of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, 
     International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), 
     International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), 
     Musicians for Pension Security Pension Rights Center, SEIU, 
     United Food and Commercial Workers International Union 
     (UFCW), United Steelworkers (USW), Western Conference of 
     Teamsters Pension Trust
       Our organizations, representing tens of millions of workers 
     and retirees, strongly support passage this year of critical 
     legislation to assist severely underfunded multiemployer 
     pension plans to ensure that retirees and their families 
     receive their hard-earned pensions. More than ten million 
     Americans depend on multiemployer pension plans for a secure 
     retirement for themselves and their families. Throughout 
     their careers, these workers gave up a portion of wages to 
     earn their pension benefits. In retirement, they deserve to 
     receive the pensions they earned and retire with dignity. The 
     Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act proposal advanced by 
     senators meets this standard by using a special partition 
     program funded by the federal government to support troubled 
     plans and their participants. We urge that this proposal be 
     passed as soon as possible.
       At the same time, we strongly oppose composite plan 
     legislation. Composite legislation, including the GROW Act, 
     hurts workers, retirees, employers, and the Pension Benefit 
     Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and should not become law.
       Composite legislation is deeply flawed because it allows 
     multiemployer plan trustees to ``refinance'' their 
     obligations to workers and retirees in the existing plan over 
     25 years instead of 15 years, so they can divert money to 
     start a new composite plan. This weakens the existing plan 
     and leaves neither plan--the existing plan nor the composite 
     plan--with enough money to pay promised benefits.
       The current public health and economic crisis illustrates 
     the harm composite plan legislation would inflict on 
     Americans. If Congress had already passed the GROW Act and it 
     was law now, workers in a previously healthy multiemployer 
     pension plan that converted to a composite plan would face 
     draconian benefit cuts. The benefits composite plan 
     participants expected they would earn would be cut 70%, and 
     the vested benefits they already earned would be cut 25%. At 
     the same time, the vested benefits of workers in the existing 
     plan would be cut 21%. To avoid benefit cuts, employers would 
     be required to increase contributions by approximately 82%--
     above and beyond what they already committed.
       The GROW Act also starves the PBGC of needed funds and 
     would compound the insolvency problems faced by the agency. 
     Composite plans are not required to pay PBGC premiums, even 
     though their creation will increase the PBGC's liabilities by 
     driving plans out of the multiemployer system and increasing 
     risks on participants who continue to rely on the PBGC to 
     insure their benefits.
       We applaud your efforts to address multiemployer pensions 
     as a part of legislation this year. We support legislation to 
     preserve healthy multiemployer plans and to help retirees in 
     deeply troubled plans, but we strongly oppose the GROW Act.


               Statement of the Pension Rights Coalition

       With the House of Representatives poised to vote on the 
     next COVID-19 relief package, known as the HEROES Act, the 
     Pension Rights Center applauds the congressional leaders who 
     have included within the massive bill the important 
     provisions of the Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act (EPPRA) 
     which will strengthen the nation's multiemployer pension 
     system. PRC, however, urges Congress to strip from the 
     package the misguided Giving Retirement Options to Workers 
     Act (GROW Act), which would undermine this all-important 
     system.
       By including EPPRA in the HEROES Act, Congress will not 
     only help save workers' and retirees' pensions, but also 
     stabilize for decades to come the federal agency that insures 
     our nation's private pension plans, the Pension Benefit 
     Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).
       ``More than 1 million workers and retirees have been 
     closely watching Congress and waiting for policymakers to 
     finally pass legislation that ensures full payment of their 
     promised pensions, which they earned through years of toil,'' 
     said Karen Friedman, the PRC's executive vice president.
       ``First, their hopes were buoyed in 2019 when the House 
     passed a bill designed to protect their benefits, known as 
     the Butch Lewis Act. But that legislation failed to advance 
     in the Senate. Now, both the retirees and the PRC are excited 
     that Congress has included the well-crafted EPPRA within the 
     latest COVID-19 bill. By doing so, Congress recognizes that 
     those workers and retirees who helped build this country and 
     who will benefit from the legislation should be permitted to 
     receive the retirement income they earned through hard work 
     and playing by the rules. We urge all members of the House 
     and Senate to make these pension rescue provisions a reality 
     for these workers and retirees and for their families.''
       PRC strongly supports EPPRA because it shores up 
     underfunded plans by providing the PBGC with the funding to 
     take on certain liabilities of ailing plans. This 
     ``partitioning'' process will ensure that the plans survive 
     for the long-term and are able to pay in full the earned 
     benefits owed to workers and retirees. The bill also 
     increases the guarantees paid by the PBGC when plans fail and 
     would restore benefits to retirees who have already had their 
     benefits cut because of the unfair provisions of the 
     Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. EPP RA shares a 
     structure similar to a proposal advanced by Senate Finance 
     Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Senate Health, 
     Education, Labor and Pension Committee Chairman Lamar 
     Alexander (R-TN).
       ``We believe that it's appropriate for EPPRA to be part of 
     the HEROES Act since those most at risk of losing benefits in 
     these multiemployer plans are the very same workers who are 
     risking their lives to protect us in this time of crisis. 
     They are the truck drivers who are transporting food and 
     supplies, the nurses and health care workers at the front 
     lines, the grocery store workers who are keeping us fed, the 
     laborers who are building our hospitals, and the musicians 
     who, despite social distancing, keep on playing for us on 
     line to soothe our anxiety'' Friedman said.
       ``These are America's unsung heroes who do--and did--the 
     essential jobs that we all are depending on in this time of 
     lockdown.''
       Unlike EPPRA, which will strengthen failing multiemployer 
     plans and protect workers and retirees and the PBGC, passage 
     of the GROW Act would undermine the multiemployer plan system 
     by weakening currently well-funded plans and creating new 
     inferior plans that do not provide guaranteed benefits. It 
     would also lead to the underfunding of the PBGC.
       PRC urges the leaders of the House of Representatives to 
     drop the GROW Act from the HEROES Act.
       The GROW Act is also vigorously opposed by AARP, the 
     Western Conference of Teamsters, the SEIU, IBEW, 
     Steelworkers, Machinists, Boilermakers and other unions and 
     organizations.

[[Page E474]]

       The Center also cheers inclusion in the HEROES Act of a 
     provision that would provide grants to community-based 
     organizations to help low-income divorced women and survivors 
     of domestic abuse receive their court-awarded retirement 
     benefits. This provision was originally introduced by Senator 
     Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Members Jan Schakowksy (D-IL) 
     and Lauren Underwood (D-IL) as part of the Women's Retirement 
     Protection Act (S. 975, H.R. 2005).

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