Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, thanks to my friends from West Virginia and Indiana. I thank Mr. Donnelly for his leadership and bringing us together today.

Minnesota, like Indiana, has so many people who are in the Central States Pension Fund. Like Senator Donnelly, I believe that promises made should be promises kept. Over 10 million Americans participate in a multiemployer pension plan and rely on those benefits for a safe and secure retirement.

The Central States Pension Fund was established in 1955 to help truckers save for retirement. As Senator Donnelly knows, coming from Indiana--a State where there are a lot of truckers--there are a lot of truckers still in this pension plan. Today the Central States Pension Fund includes workers from the carhaul, tankhaul, pipeline, warehouse, construction, clerical, food processing, dairy, and trucking industries.

I have heard from people all over my State. Fred, from Hibbing, worked 33 years as a bread man and serves as a caregiver for his wife who has serious back problems and was recently diagnosed with leukemia.

Daniel from St. Michael worked over 41 years as a mechanic. If he were to face a reduction in his pension, he would likely be forced to sell the house he has lived in since 1973.

Sue, from Elk River, wrote about her husband Jim, who retired in 1998 and passed away in 2013. Jim left Sue a spousal benefit pension that was supposed to take care of her for the rest of her life. Sue writes that Jim's passing was ``devastating enough on its own,'' but now she fears being forced into the labor market as a woman in her seventies, just to make ends meet.

These are just a few of the examples. Unless Congress acts, hundreds of thousands of participants in the Central States Pension Fund face the real possibility that their hard-earned pensions could be reduced. Many of these are from the Midwest. That is why it is called the Central States Pension Fund.

We need to find a workable solution for underfunded multiemployer pension plans. I know Senator Brown is leading a group that is working on that--the joint committee working together--to find a solution they can present to the American people.

We all know that delay only makes the solution more costly. The time is here. It has arrived. We can't put it off any more. We must move forward now to get this done. I thank Senator Donnelly for his leadership.

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