The Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans held its third hearing this week, focusing on the impact to contributing employers in critical and declining pension plans. The bipartisan, bicameral committee is tasked with finding a solution to the nation’s multiemployer pension crisis by the end of November. The committee heard from various employers on the risks they face in critical and declining plans. The testimony touched on the ever increasing contributions, the active workers seeing diminishing accruals – which hurts retention and recruitment, withdrawal liability that can exceed the value of a company and thereby hinder its ability to be sold, and how withdrawal liability can impact a company’s credit worthiness.
The committee has three more hearings planned over the summer and then will look toward finding a solution. AGC’s priorities remain including the composite plan design to the committee’s solution. AGC is also opposed to increasing premiums to pay for a new government loan or subsidy program to assist failing plans.
For more information, contact Jim Young at [email protected] or (202) 547-0133.