[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 101 (Tuesday, June 14, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5489-H5490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REFORM THE MULTIEMPLOYER PENSION SYSTEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, Democrats keep forcing taxpayers to bail out 
failing and mismanaged union-run multiemployer pension plans, and it 
needs to stop.
  The Committee on Education and Labor has dedicated considerable time 
and held countless hearings on the problems posed by multiemployer 
pension plans and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's, PBGC's, 
multiemployer insurance program.
  Unfortunately, unlike previous bipartisan legislation to address the 
failing system, our Democrat colleagues decided to go it alone by 
enacting the deceitful American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA.
  Under the guise of COVID relief, ARPA included an irresponsible and 
uncapped taxpayer bailout of failing and insolvent multiemployer 
pension plans. Let me repeat, there is no cap on the amount of taxpayer 
dollars that PBGC may send to multiemployer plans.
  This is especially concerning given that multiemployer plans are 
currently underfunded by $756 billion.
  Unsurprisingly, the cost of ARPA's pension bailout program continues 
to grow. The Congressional Budget Office originally estimated it would 
cost taxpayers $86 billion. Five months later, PBGC estimated it would 
likely distribute $94.2 billion. After 2 more months, PBGC estimated it 
would likely distribute $97.2 billion and, in one scenario, could 
distribute upward of $147 billion.
  To date, PBGC has disbursed $6.7 billion to 26 plans, and this is 
just the beginning.
  In April, the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension 
Plan

[[Page H5490]]

requested a staggering $35 billion from taxpayers. PBGC is reviewing an 
additional eight applications requesting a total of $1.1 billion. In 
all, PBGC is expected to send money to over 250 pension plans.
  PBGC has confirmed what we knew to be true, but others refused to 
admit: ARPA's taxpayer-funded bailout will not fix a thing.
  In September, the agency stated the massive influx of taxpayer 
dollars will only delay the immediate insolvency of the multiemployer 
insurance program, and insolvency is still likely. Simply throwing 
money at plans will not solve the problem.
  ARPA failed to address the underlying structural issues in the 
multiemployer system that contributed to the crisis, thus ensuring that 
plan mismanagement and underfunding will persist. In fact, ARPA 
includes a galling provision that explicitly bars PBGC from reforming 
plan governance or altering plan-funding rules of plans receiving a 
bailout.

  It is clear to me that the mismanagement of multiemployer plans and 
the risks they pose to workers, retirees, and the taxpayer cannot be 
ignored. Congress must require multiemployer plans to measure their 
liabilities accurately and collect adequate contributions to fund 
benefits.
  Failing and insolvent plans must stop making promises that they are 
unable and unwilling to keep. It is common practice for insolvent 
plans, which do not have enough funds to pay current retirees, to 
continue allowing active participants to accrue benefits and enroll new 
workers into the plan. This is deceptive. This is wrong. This must 
stop.
  Congress should increase multiemployer insurance premiums to account 
for the risk that underfunded plans pose to PBGC.
  Multiemployer plans pay a meager flat-rate premium of $31 per 
participant. In contrast, the single-employer program requires plans to 
pay an $88 flat-rate premium in addition to a variable rate premium 
based on a plan's level of underfunding.
  Decades of chronic underfunding and false promises have put millions 
of workers and retirees at risk. By propping up this clearly 
unsustainable system without enacting reforms, ARPA continues to enable 
and encourage the irresponsible behaviors that caused this crisis.
  Taxpayers saving for their own retirements should not be on the hook 
to pay for the broken promises of union-run multiemployer pension 
plans.
  There must be accountability for this gross mismanagement and real 
reform to ensure the multiemployer pension system does not continue to 
deceive workers and the American people.

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