Rep. Cole Votes for Pension to Safeguard Benefits for Workers; Retirees

Washington, D.C.--Rep. Tom Cole voted for H.R. 2830, the Pension Protection Act of 2005, which passed in the House. H.R. 2830 addresses the problem of under-funded pension plans. Congressman Cole used his position on the powerful Rules Committee to help protect a bipartisan compromise that was especially important to GM employees who were recently laid off due to plant closings.

In a Rules Committee meeting, members agreed to include a provision in the Manager's Amendment to allow a five-year phase in to the requirement that pension benefits could be increased only if a pension plan was at least 80 percent funded. Shutdown benefits would be allowable under the same standards as pension benefit increases. After these changes to Sections 103 (a) and (b) of the bill, the United Auto Workers endorsed the bill.

"I am very pleased we were able to include language in the bill, which was reported out of Rules Committee, to fix this controversial provision. This new language will protect plant shutdown benefits and pension benefit increases," Congressman Tom Cole said.

The Pension Protection Act takes a balanced approach to comprehensive pension reform.

“People work hard for years to earn a pension and they deserve for it to be protected. This bipartisan bill supported by businesses as well as labor unions is a carefully crafted compromise that will shore up funding for pension plans," Congressman Tom Cole said. “The bill will protect the pensions of employees and retirees and prevent taxpayers from having to bail out the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation because some companies have failed to adequately fund their pension plans.

Specifically, the act will do the following:

Ø Ensure employers properly and adequately fund their worker pension plans;

Ø Protect taxpayers from costly bailouts of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation;

Ø Require companies to provide more information to workers about the status of their pension plans; and

Ø Make commonsense modifications to defined contribution laws to encourage greater personal savings for retirement and other needs.

This legislation must now pass in the Senate.

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