Efforts to Modernize and Strengthen Multiemployer Pension Plans

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, too many workers in this nation reach retirement age without the savings they need. The retirement crisis in America is real and will only worsen unless we make saving easier and do more to encourage workers to begin planning for retirement earlier. And that's why I've committed as the Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee to addressing this crisis.

For example, about 50 percent of American workers work for an employer that does not offer a retirement plan at work. To make a significant dent in this coverage gap, it's critical that we enact legislation that requires employers that don't currently offer a retirement plan to at a minimum provide their employees with an auto IRA option.

I'm also pleased that the American Rescue Plan Act includes the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021, which would create a special financial assistance program under which cash payments would be made by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to financially troubled multiemployer pension plans to ensure that such plans can continue paying retirees' benefits for the next 30 years.

What we have here is a national emergency that we need to address immediately. If Congress doesn't act, the multiemployer pension system could collapse entirely, leaving retirees in poverty, businesses in bankruptcy, and communities in crisis.

Reform for both the multiemployer and single employer retirement plan system is a priority for the Ways and Means committee and we plan on addressing these issues this year.

I commit to working with Ms. Davids on this as we move forward.

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