McCaskill Gets Commitment from Treasury Secretary Nominee to Meet with Missouri Truckers

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today received a commitment from Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Secretary of the Treasury, that if confirmed, he will meet with Missouri truckers, as well as other Missouri workers and retirees who are facing the threat of deep cuts to their retirement benefits because of the instability of the Central States Pension Fund.

"You have an incredibly important role in the stability of guaranteed pensions in this country in the new job that you seek," said McCaskill, a former Missouri State Auditor. "I have 32,000 people in my state that worked hard for decades, most of them driving trucks, and they planned their lives around their pensions. My question to you is--we can find the bailout for the banks, and we can provide stimulus, and we can do an awful lot of things around here to help a lot of people who have a lot of money. Will you commit to meet with some of the truck drivers from my state so they can look you in the eye and explain to you that the guarantee of their pension? You know, your new boss did an amazing job connecting with people like these Missourians all over the country. He looked them in the eye and he said to them, 'I'm not going to leave you behind.' I want to hear from you that you're not going to leave these people behind."

Mr. Mnuchin responded, "What I will say is I will commit to meet with them, and I will commit to working with your office on us figuring out what is an appropriate bipartisan solution to this issue that I appreciate--the pension issue we've talked about several times today--is a significant issue."

McCaskill, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, raised the issue with Mnuchin during the committee's hours-long hearing on his nomination.

In December 2014, Congress approved a sprawling, $1 trillion spending bill--and tucked into that "omnibus" spending bill was a provision allowing for deep cuts to retiree benefits for 32,000 Missourians drawing from the Central States Pension Fund. McCaskill vocally opposed that legislation, and was the only member of the Missouri Congressional delegation to vote against it. She backed legislation to undo that provision and praised a decision by the Treasury Department to temporarily reject those pension cuts.

McCaskill is a strong supporter and cosponsor of the Keep Our Pension Promises Act, which would repeal the law allowing for massive pension cuts. She has also backed the Pension Fund Integrity Act, to cut excessive executive compensation, stop raises and bonuses for pension fund executives, and prohibit financially troubled pension plans from using plan assets to hire outside lobbying firms.

Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/accountability to learn more about McCaskill's fight to strengthen accountability.

Read this original document at: https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/news-releases/mccaskill-gets-commitment-from-treasury-secretary-nominee-to-meet-with-missouri-truckers