Amid all the pre-election, end-of-session congressional debates over military spending, minimum-wage increases and offshore drilling, Congress also dealt with the matter of pension reform. That sounds like a yawner, but this issue is perhaps the most important one Congress will deal with in this and coming sessions. ...
At last, pension reform is in the works PERSUASION is often a subtle art, but not always. On July 18th hundreds of employees of Northwest Airlines descended on Washington, DC, to urge Congress to hurry up and pass a bill on company pension schemes--with...
The federal government's role as lender and insurer is very important, with over $1.4 trillion of loans and guarantees and at least $7 trillion of insured risk. Tens of millions of Americans benefit from housing loans, student loans, flood insurance, etc. Yet the federal financial institutions established to run these...
ATLANTA -- Delta Air Lines Inc. will file a request Monday to terminate its pilots' pension plan, the company's chief executive said Friday. But the nation's third-largest carrier still holds out hope pension reform will save other employees' retirement plans. In a letter to U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson...
The traditional pension plan appears to be in danger of extinction.Once prevalent in corporate America, many companies have converted their defined pension plans into 401k savings plans while others, like bankrupt United Airlines, have turned them over to the federal government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, an entity Congress created in...
WASHINGTON -- Nearly everyone -- business, labor, Republicans, Democrats -- agrees that something must be done to sustain company- based pension plans and make sure that the federal agency insuring them doesn't become a financial basket case. Getting Congress to agree on legislation is another matter. ...
WASHINGTON AFP — The latest airline bankruptcies are deepening the crisis in private pensions, which now threaten to leave the US government with a 141.9 billion dollar liability, a congressional report said. The Congressional Budget Office report said the 20-year unfunded liabilities of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation are...
Congress has little time for business-related bills now. Lawmakers are focused on helping the victims of Katrina, rebuilding storm-damaged areas and assessing blame for the government's slow response. The shift in focus means that some nearly sure bets may languish indefinitely. Next year...
Byline: Doug Halonen WASHINGTON - President Bush's proposed bailout legislation for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is likely to sink in Congress, industry lobbyists said. The proposal, included in the president's fiscal 2008 budget, is aime Byline: Doug Halonen ...
WASHINGTON AFP — US airlines and labor unions urged Congress to ease rules for pension contributions, saying the current system may end up forcing more carriers into bankruptcy. Delta Air Lines chief executive Gerald Grinstein told a Senate Finance Committee hearing that pension liabilities are pushing some carriers to...
Employer groups applaud the Bush administration for tackling the woes of the defined benefit system, but they are worried how changes will impact plan sponsors. The American Benefits Council, American Council of Life Insurers, Business Roundtable, ERISA Industry Committee, National Association of Manufacturers and U.S. Chamber of Commerce all...
The time has come for Congress to make hard decisions concerning the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The best decision for taxpayers, and, ultimately all employers and employees, would be to freeze the PBGC's obligations at their present level. Tha The time has come...
Pension cognoscenti have frequently remarked on the stagnation of defined benefit pensions and the concomitant rise of defined contribution plans. This Article suggests that over the last generation something more fundamental, which can justly be called a paradigm shift, has occurred. Americans today primarily conceive of and implement retirement savings...
Forget Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security--the issue that is front and center on lawmakers' plates, even before the 109th Congress convenes, is pension plans. This week, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation said it lost $12 billion last year, pushing its deficit to $23 billion...
By Tami Luhby, Newsday, Melville, N.Y. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Nov. 16--Straining under the looming pension crisis in the airline industry, the federal pension benefits insurer yesterday reported that its deficit more than doubled from a year earlier. The...
NEW YORK, Nov. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is an opinion editorial by Bernard Wasow, senior fellow and economist at The Century Foundation: While the administration is preparing its drive to replace part of Social Security with private investment accounts, an obscure government agency is planning to go to Congress...
Citing failure of two big airlines to make payments to their pension plans, top government officials Tuesday called on Congress to make it harder for corporations to dump their obligations on taxpayers. Bradley Belt, executive director of the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., said his agency needs a stronger...
Congress will give more clout in bankruptcy court to the PBGC, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Lawmakers want the PBGC to get priority in claiming the liquidated assets of companies that declare bankruptcy. Congress will give more clout in bankruptcy court to the PBGC, Pension...
Byline: Vineeta Anand WASHINGTON - Days before the PBGC is expected to announce a worsening of its financial condition, two senators agreed to allow the huge pension bill they had been holding hostage since early October to proceed to the full Sen Byline:...
By David Nicklaus, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Apr. 7--CONGRESS WOULD PUT PENSION FIX ON TAXPAYERS' BACKS: The numbers just don't add up on the pension promises made by corporate America. During the bull market of the 1990s,...
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