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Senate Members of Select Committee on Multiemployer Plans Named

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) have named the four Republicans and four Democrats from the Senate who will serve on the new Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans.

The bipartisan, bicameral committee was created by the Bipartisan Budget Act to look for ways to improve the solvency of multiemployer plans. It is required to hold public hearings and vote on their findings and legislative recommendations no later than Nov. 30, 2018. If the committee approves the recommendations, they will go to the House and Senate for their consideration. The committee is to be dissolved no later than Dec. 31, 2018.

McConnell on Feb. 27 named the following Republican members to the committee:

  • Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

  • Michael Crapo (R-ID)

  • Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

  • Rob Portman (R-OH)

On Feb. 26, Schumer named the following Democratic members to the committee:

  • Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

  • Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)

  • Joe Manchin (D-WV)

  • Tina Smith (D-MN)

Hatch and Brown are co-chairs of the committee.

“This committee has an opportunity to resolve this multiemployer pension crisis once and for all. I am hopeful that we can achieve a comprehensive and permanent solution that protects earned pensions, protects taxpayer dollars, prevents the insolvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and alleviates pressure on employers,” said Portman in a statement. “Millions of middle-class workers in this country put money into pension plans year after year after year, forgoing larger salary increases or other benefits because they wanted to know that when they retire, they would have a little nest egg,” said Schumer. He continued, “Unfortunately, those pensions are now in trouble, and if we don’t meet these pension obligations today, they’re going to cost the government a whole lot more tomorrow.

The members of the Select Committee from the House were named on Feb. 23.