Senate Finance Democrats Call for Bipartisan Action to Solve Pension Crisis

WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., along with all Senate Finance Democrats, today released a letter to Chairman Hatch calling for bipartisan action to help ensure hard working Americans can count on the pensions they have earned for economic security in retirement.  

The multiemployer pension system is in a state of crisis as hundreds of plans are dramatically underfunded and others are looking to cut pensions for retirees and current employees.   The largest of the underfunded plans, Central States Pension Fund, filed an application under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA) to cut the pensions of approximately 300,000 retirees and terminated employees and future pensions of almost 70,000 current employees. 

“Lots of hard working Americans are counting on the pensions and health benefits they rightfully earned for retirement,” said Wyden. “If Congress doesn’t act now, many of these plans are going to run out of money and thousands of workers and retirees will be left with nowhere to turn.”

This pension crisis extends to thousands of coal miners who are expected to lose their retiree health benefits by the end of this year and their pension benefits by the end of December 2017.

The letter, signed by all Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee, can be found here.

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