congressional_record: CREC-2008-12-11-pt1-PgS10914-2
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| granule_id | date | congress | session | volume | issue | title | chamber | granule_class | sub_granule_class | page_start | page_end | speakers | bills | citation | full_text |
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| CREC-2008-12-11-pt1-PgS10914-2 | 2008-12-11 | 110 | 2 | MAKING TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS RELATED TO THE PENSION PROTECTION ACT OF 2006 | SENATE | SENATE | TECHNICALCORRECTIONS | S10914 | S10915 | [{"name": "Max Baucus", "role": "speaking"}, {"name": "Jon Kyl", "role": "speaking"}] | [{"congress": "110", "type": "HR", "number": "7327"}, {"congress": "110", "type": "HR", "number": "7327"}] | 154 Cong. Rec. S10914 | Congressional Record, Volume 154 Issue 186 (Thursday, December 11, 2008) [Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 186 (Thursday, December 11, 2008)] [Senate] [Pages S10914-S10915] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] MAKING TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS RELATED TO THE PENSION PROTECTION ACT OF 2006 Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, in a moment I will ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to passage of H.R. 7327, the pension bill. Before I do that, I wish to say this is very important relief for seniors and for the country. The bill includes a provision that would allow seniors who are 70\1/2\ years of age not to have to make withdrawals from their IRA accounts that the current law requires. Under current law, if you are 70\1/2\ or older, you must begin to withdraw significant amounts from your 401(k) accounts or IRA accounts and if you don't, you pay a big penalty. At these times it is not wise to require that, because the accounts are lower in value and they should not have to make those withdrawals if they don't want to. In addition, this legislation would allow companies to postpone making increased contributions to their pension plans also required by the recent pension law. When we revised pension law a short while ago, we were pretty strict to protect employees by requiring companies to make contributions to the pension plans at a much faster rate. That made sense then, but given the economic downturn, with the market values down so much lower than they were back then, it makes sense, I believe--and I think most Senators agree--that those contributions should be postponed or later modified in order to keep companies viable. A lot of companies need this to meet payrolls in these difficult times, and this will prevent them having to freeze their benefits. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 7327, which was received from the House. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title. The legislative clerk read as follows: A bill (H.R. 7327) to make technical corrections related to the Pension Protection Act of 2006, and for other purposes. There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill. Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, we are living through an unprecedented economic downturn. Over the past 15 months, the Dow Jones Industrial companies have lost more than one-third of their value. An end does not appear in sight. This sharp market decline hurts more than just Wall Street. It hurts every American with a retirement plan. When the market drops, so do the assets in pension plans. Over the past 15 months, because of the current financial crisis, retirement accounts have lost as much as $2 trillion in assets due to the current financial crisis. That is $2 trillion that disappeared from the retirement accounts of American workers. And that is $2 trillion that disappeared from the accounts of pension plans. [[Page S10915]] Congress must act now to protect individual retirement accounts and pension benefits and assets. This bill provides relief for seniors age 70\1/2\ and older whom current law requires to take distributions from their retirement plans. Individuals would have the option to keep their retirement savings where they are. We should not force them to take out huge portions of their savings when the market is down. This bill also contains a number of provisions to help ease the strain on pension plans. And this bill would help to prevent the need for some plans to reduce benefits or make extraordinary funding contributions due to the market downturn. If we fail to act and provide short-term funding relief, pension plans would be unable to afford their increased contributions. By one estimate, current law would require 350 of the Fortune 500 companies to contribute an extra $100 billion or more to their pension plans next year, even if the market rebounds. If these companies did this, they would reduce their investment spending by $60 to $70 billion next year. That is something that our economy cannot afford. This bill provides relief for single-employer plans that fall below the set funding target percentage set in the Pension Protection Act of 2006. And the bill provides analogous relief for multi-employer plans that are faced with significant underfunding due to market losses. This relief would allow them to temporarily freeze their current funding certification or extend the time period that they have to restore their funding levels. The bill also helps prevent benefit restrictions for those single- employer plans that may be significantly underfunded next year due to the market downturn. This bill also contains a number of critical technical amendments to the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 arguably marks the most sweeping changes to the pension laws since the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Like many complicated pieces of legislation, technical corrections to the law must be made. Technical corrections to the law are often time sensitive. That is, many of them must be passed by both Houses of Congress before the effective date of the statute. Many of the rules under the Pension Act were effective January 1, 2008. This means that the time for passing technical corrections has come and gone. If we were not to act and pass these time-sensitive provisions now, the pension community and the Department of the Treasury--the agency tasked with interpreting the statute and providing the necessary details on how the new law works--would be placed in a very tough spot. That is, the Department of the Treasury would not have the necessary corrections and clarifications of the original intent of the act to sufficiently issue the details necessary to allow the pension community to achieve proper compliance. This would not be fair to the pension community or the Treasury Department. Failing to pass these technical corrections would therefore be irresponsible. Here in the Senate, we passed the technical corrections contained in this act back in December 2007. We already said that these corrections are good pension policy. Americans need real help from Congress to make sure that their retirement savings are safe and sound and available to them when they need it. This bill contains a number of provisions that would help to provide relief to individuals and pension plans and move the economy toward recovery. Individuals and the pension community warned that individual retirement account holders and pension plan participants could be adversely affected without the provisions contained in this bill. Passing this pension package sends the right message to individuals, plan sponsors, and pension plan participants. I thank my colleagues for helping to make passage of this bill possible today. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The bill (H.R. 7327) was ordered to a third reading, was read the third time, and passed. Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll. Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. ____________________ |