{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2008-12-11-pt1-PgS10914-2", "2008-12-11", 110, 2, null, null, "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)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 186 (Thursday, December 11, 2008)]\n[Senate]\n[Pages S10914-S10915]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n MAKING TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS RELATED TO THE PENSION PROTECTION ACT OF\n                                  2006\n\n  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, in a moment I will ask unanimous consent\nthat the Senate proceed to passage of H.R. 7327, the pension bill.\nBefore I do that, I wish to say this is very important relief for\nseniors and for the country. The bill includes a provision that would\nallow seniors who are 70\\1/2\\ years of age not to have to make\nwithdrawals from their IRA accounts that the current law requires.\nUnder current law, if you are 70\\1/2\\ or older, you must begin to\nwithdraw significant amounts from your 401(k) accounts or IRA accounts\nand if you don't, you pay a big penalty. At these times it is not wise\nto require that, because the accounts are lower in value and they\nshould not have to make those withdrawals if they don't want to.\n  In addition, this legislation would allow companies to postpone\nmaking increased contributions to their pension plans also required by\nthe recent pension law. When we revised pension law a short while ago,\nwe were pretty strict to protect employees by requiring companies to\nmake contributions to the pension plans at a much faster rate. That\nmade sense then, but given the economic downturn, with the market\nvalues down so much lower than they were back then, it makes sense, I\nbelieve--and I think most Senators agree--that those contributions\nshould be postponed or later modified in order to keep companies\nviable.\n  A lot of companies need this to meet payrolls in these difficult\ntimes, and this will prevent them having to freeze their benefits.\n  I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate\nconsideration of H.R. 7327, which was received from the House.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.\n  The legislative clerk read as follows:\n\n       A bill (H.R. 7327) to make technical corrections related to\n     the Pension Protection Act of 2006, and for other purposes.\n\n  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.\n  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, we are living through an unprecedented\neconomic downturn. Over the past 15 months, the Dow Jones Industrial\ncompanies have lost more than one-third of their value. An end does not\nappear in sight.\n  This sharp market decline hurts more than just Wall Street. It hurts\nevery American with a retirement plan. When the market drops, so do the\nassets in pension plans.\n  Over the past 15 months, because of the current financial crisis,\nretirement accounts have lost as much as $2 trillion in assets due to\nthe current financial crisis. That is $2 trillion that disappeared from\nthe retirement accounts of American workers. And that is $2 trillion\nthat disappeared from the accounts of pension plans.\n\n[[Page S10915]]\n\n  Congress must act now to protect individual retirement accounts and\npension benefits and assets.\n  This bill provides relief for seniors age 70\\1/2\\ and older whom\ncurrent law requires to take distributions from their retirement plans.\n  Individuals would have the option to keep their retirement savings\nwhere they are. We should not force them to take out huge portions of\ntheir savings when the market is down.\n  This bill also contains a number of provisions to help ease the\nstrain on pension plans. And this bill would help to prevent the need\nfor some plans to reduce benefits or make extraordinary funding\ncontributions due to the market downturn.\n  If we fail to act and provide short-term funding relief, pension\nplans would be unable to afford their increased contributions. By one\nestimate, current law would require 350 of the Fortune 500 companies to\ncontribute an extra $100 billion or more to their pension plans next\nyear, even if the market rebounds. If these companies did this, they\nwould reduce their investment spending by $60 to $70 billion next year.\nThat is something that our economy cannot afford.\n  This bill provides relief for single-employer plans that fall below\nthe set funding target percentage set in the Pension Protection Act of\n2006.\n  And the bill provides analogous relief for multi-employer plans that\nare faced with significant underfunding due to market losses. This\nrelief would allow them to temporarily freeze their current funding\ncertification or extend the time period that they have to restore their\nfunding levels.\n  The bill also helps prevent benefit restrictions for those single-\nemployer plans that may be significantly underfunded next year due to\nthe market downturn.\n  This bill also contains a number of critical technical amendments to\nthe Pension Protection Act of 2006. The Pension Protection Act of 2006\narguably marks the most sweeping changes to the pension laws since the\nenactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.\n  Like many complicated pieces of legislation, technical corrections to\nthe law must be made.\n  Technical corrections to the law are often time sensitive. That is,\nmany of them must be passed by both Houses of Congress before the\neffective date of the statute.\n  Many of the rules under the Pension Act were effective January 1,\n2008. This means that the time for passing technical corrections has\ncome and gone.\n  If we were not to act and pass these time-sensitive provisions now,\nthe pension community and the Department of the Treasury--the agency\ntasked with interpreting the statute and providing the necessary\ndetails on how the new law works--would be placed in a very tough spot.\n  That is, the Department of the Treasury would not have the necessary\ncorrections and clarifications of the original intent of the act to\nsufficiently issue the details necessary to allow the pension community\nto achieve proper compliance. This would not be fair to the pension\ncommunity or the Treasury Department.\n  Failing to pass these technical corrections would therefore be\nirresponsible.\n  Here in the Senate, we passed the technical corrections contained in\nthis act back in December 2007. We already said that these corrections\nare good pension policy.\n  Americans need real help from Congress to make sure that their\nretirement savings are safe and sound and available to them when they\nneed it. This bill contains a number of provisions that would help to\nprovide relief to individuals and pension plans and move the economy\ntoward recovery.\n  Individuals and the pension community warned that individual\nretirement account holders and pension plan participants could be\nadversely affected without the provisions contained in this bill.\nPassing this pension package sends the right message to individuals,\nplan sponsors, and pension plan participants.\n  I thank my colleagues for helping to make passage of this bill\npossible today.\n  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read the\nthird time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table,\nwith no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related\nto the bill be printed in the Record.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n  The bill (H.R. 7327) was ordered to a third reading, was read the\nthird time, and passed.\n  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.\n  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.\n  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for\nthe quorum call be rescinded.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2008-12-11-pt1-PgS10914-2"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 10.820863069966435, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}