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The Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) was scheduled to hear testimony during the afternoon session in Washington, D.C. from six witnesses about the “Create Jobs & Save Benefits Act of 2010,” (SB 3157) sponsored by Senator Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania). The controversial portion of the Casey bill, unveiled earlier this year, would allow multiemployer plans to segregate the benefit liabilities attributable to participants of bankrupt former employers who pull out of the program without funding their withdrawal liability. Assets equal to a maximum of five years of projected benefit payments would also be moved to the separate account where the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the nation’s private-sector pension insurer, would back the benefit payments. Casey said when he announced the bill that the move was necessary because so many small employers who belong to multiemployer plans have gone out of business during the economic downturn. The lawmaker said costs to remaining employers increase to fund the benefits of participants left orphaned by their bankrupt employer withdrawing from the plan and that puts an additional – often unsustainable – burden on other plan members. “Pension plans across the country have taken major losses because of the near economic collapse and the decline in the stock market,” said Casey, on announcing the proposal. “Multi-employer plans face unique challenges that are overburdening pension plans and the bottom lines of companies. My legislation would help correct these problems to protect the pensions of workers and unburden companies stuck paying a crippling expense that threatens its existence and the jobs of its employees.” The Casey bill would also enable multiemployer plans to pool resources to help reduce administrative costs. The bill could cost $8 billion over 10 years, Casey aide Larry Smar told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) was scheduled to hear testimony during the afternoon session in Washington, D.C. from six witnesses about the “Create Jobs & Save Benefits Act of 2010,” (SB 3157) sponsored by Senator Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania).
The controversial portion of the Casey bill, unveiled earlier this year, would allow multiemployer plans to segregate the benefit liabilities attributable to participants of bankrupt former employers who pull out of the program without funding their withdrawal liability. Assets equal to a maximum of five years of projected benefit payments would also be moved to the separate account where the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), the nation’s private-sector pension insurer, would back the benefit payments.
Casey said when he announced the bill that the move was necessary because so many small employers who belong to multiemployer plans have gone out of business during the economic downturn. The lawmaker said costs to remaining employers increase to fund the benefits of participants left orphaned by their bankrupt employer withdrawing from the plan and that puts an additional – often unsustainable – burden on other plan members.
“Pension plans across the country have taken major losses because of the near economic collapse and the decline in the stock market,” said Casey, on announcing the proposal. “Multi-employer plans face unique challenges that are overburdening pension plans and the bottom lines of companies. My legislation would help correct these problems to protect the pensions of workers and unburden companies stuck paying a crippling expense that threatens its existence and the jobs of its employees.”
The Casey bill would also enable multiemployer plans to pool resources to help reduce administrative costs.
The bill could cost $8 billion over 10 years, Casey aide Larry Smar told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
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