Reaffirming Douglas Rumsey's Right to Hard-Earned Pension

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise to share the powerful story of Douglas Rumsey, a retiree of Teamsters Local 707 Pension Fund. For years, Douglas paid into his pension fund. Time and again, he gave up pay raises, deferring those raises be invested in his pension to make sure his retirement would be secure with one.

Tragically, millions of hard working Americans like him now face a grim prospect, a retirement without economic security as their hard- earned pensions is pulled out from under them. Due to no fault of his own, Douglas's pension was cut from $2,800 per month to $900 per month. Today, everything is a financial struggle. He can no longer support his family He can no longer pay his property tax, or his medical insurance. Even purchasing everyday items basic to daily life is a dilemma of true necessity. After 23 years of trucking service, after he put his life on the line for this country in his service in the Army, Douglas should be able to enjoy the golden years of his life, with his friends and family, without daily financial worry. Instead, he now lives in poverty, struggling to make ends meet. A robust member of his community, his distress is felt throughout his community.

I include in the Record the full testimony of Douglas Rumsey. Douglas Rumsey is not alone in his plight. This Congress turned its back on more than 40 years of pension promises, rolling back anti-cutback provisions. It turned its back on hundreds of thousands of hard working Americans. Telling these personal experiences is critical to understand why immediate action is required to buoy hope, retirement security, and the livelihoods of millions of American workers.

It is why I introduced the ``Keep Our Pension Promises Act,'' along with Senator Bernie Sanders for the last several years, which would establish a legacy fund within the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to ensure solvency for multi-employer pension plans, but really to ensure the solvency of so many hard working American's retirements.

Additionally, it is why I joined my colleagues to introduce the ``Butch Lewis Pension Protection Act'' in honor of an Ohio Teamster. Without congressional action, nearly 50,000 Ohio retirees in the Central States Pensions Fund and thousands more Ohioans in the nearly 100 other troubled multi-employer plans pensions are in jeopardy. I have led the charge to push for a legislative fix to the multi-employer pension crisis year after year. The multi-employer pension crisis is just the tip of a looming pension crisis. It is time for Congress and this nation to come to terms with this economic threat in our own backyards.

Mr. Speaker, this is a commonsense issue. Congress must act now. That's why I rise in strong support of this measure, and urge my colleagues to do the same.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source