In Third Bipartisan Committee Hearing on the Multiemployer Pension Crisis, Heitkamp Pushes Congress to Reform Pension Insurance & Pass the Butch Lewis Act

WASHINGTON, May 18 -- The office of Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-North Dakota, issued the following news release:

U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp participated in the third hearing of the 16-person bipartisan, House and Senate Joint Select Committee tasked with solving the crisis facing multiemployer pension plans across the country, including threatening 2,000 North Dakotans and 400,000 pension fund participants nationwide who paid into the Central States Pension Fund. If Congress doesn't act, these retirees and their families will see severe cuts to their retirement savings.

Heitkamp and her fellow members of the Committee questioned Tom Reeder, the Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)--the federal agency responsible for insuring the pensions of participants and beneficiaries covered by private sector, defined-benefit pension plans. During the hearing, Heitkamp also pushed Congress to pass the Butch Lewis Act, which Heitkamp helped write and introduce, to put multiemployer pension plans back on solid footing.

"Supporting the working men and women of America shouldn't be a partisan issue--it's a moral imperative. Current workers, retirees, and their families deserve the security of knowing their hard-earned pensions will be available for decades to come, without cuts," said Heitkamp. "I had the opportunity to push the Director of the PBGC on what he sees as the best way to address the tremendous uncertainty facing pensions across the country and how to protect hardworking North Dakotans who did the right thing and saved for retirement for themselves and their families. Congress cannot afford to ignore this ticking timebomb, and that why I'm fighting to pass our Butch Lewis Act, so that we can stabilize the retirement security of millions of workers and help address the fallout of insolvent plans. If the federal government can bail out automakers and big banks, it can certainly make sure working families are protected, small businesses don't face bankruptcy, and taxpayers aren't burdened with a massive bill."

If the Central States Pension Plan and other pension plans are allowed to fail, not only will employers no longer be able to pay promised benefits, but taxpayers would be at risk of having to pay billions when the PBGC becomes insolvent. Currently, the PBGC's multiemployer insurance program has a deficit of $65 billion and could fail in just a few years without Congressional action.

Earlier this week, Heitkamp spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate to share the stories of North Dakotans negatively impacted by the multiemployer pension crisis. Click here to watch the full video of Heitkamp's speech.

And last week, Heitkamp and U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), another member of the Joint Select Committee, joined about 120 workers and retirees in Fargo to provide an update on the work of the Committee to address the issues facing multiemployer pension plans. Heitkamp and Smith also encouraged those impacted by the crisis to send their feedback to a new inbox created by the committee, which is gathering input about current challenges related to the crisis as the Committee works to craft a legislative solution to the pension problem by the end of the year. Workers, retirees, and businesses can send their suggestions and ideas via email to JSCSMPP@finance.senate.gov until September 30, 2018.

Heitkamp fought to be appointed to the Committee, which is required to hold at least five public meetings, including hearings focused on retirees, current workers, and small businesses. The Committee consists of 16 members, including eight senators and eight representatives, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. The Committee also has instructions to report a bill by the last week of November 2018, and Heitkamp helped secure the creation of the Committee as part of the overall budget compromise that Congress passed in February.

In November 2017, Heitkamp announced the Butch Lewis Act during a rally in Bismarck with over 100 workers, retirees, and their families. The Select Committee will provide a process for Congress to consider Heitkamp's bill and work toward a bipartisan solution that can solve the pension crisis.

The Butch Lewis Act would:

* Provide financing to put failing pension plans back on solid ground to ensure they can meet their commitments to retirees today and workers for decades to come.

* Prevent a single dollar of cuts to benefits retirees have earned.

* Put safeguards in place so pension plans remain strong so they will be there for today's workers when they retire.

Specifically, the bill would allow the Treasury Department to loan money, leveraged by safe investments, to pension plans to ensure that retirees and their families are guaranteed their promised benefits.

Background

For years, Heitkamp has stood with North Dakota's workers and retirees and fought to safeguard their retirement savings, and she has specifically fought to protect those who are part of the Central States Pension Fund from harsh cuts. Heitkamp spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 2016 to push the U.S. Treasury Department to reject the proposed harsh cuts, and joined retirees and workers at a rally in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in 2016 to push back against cuts.

In 2016, those workers and retirees faced pension cuts of up to 60 percent under a plan to restructure the multiemployer pension plan, which is no longer solvent. After pressure from Heitkamp and workers across the country, Kenneth Feinberg--the then-Treasury official overseeing the restructuring of the pension plan-- announced that the U.S. Department of the Treasury rejected the proposed cuts, saying they were unfair for workers and retirees who would be impacted.