Susan Muffley Act of 2022
Floor Speech
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, when it comes to bailouts, Congress just can't seem to help itself. Under President Biden, taxpayers have been forced to bankroll the so-called American Rescue Plan which included an uncapped bailout for failing and insolvent multi-employer pensions.
From footing the bill for this excessive government spending to record-high gas prices, taxpayers can't catch a break in Biden's America, and today we are considering another bailout that will force taxpayers to cover the tab for failed, privately run pensions.
What message does this send to the men and women who have their own retirement accounts to worry about or have no retirement accounts at all?
More pension bailouts set a damning precedent. In case anyone has forgotten, we work for hardworking taxpayers in this country. As Members of Congress we have an obligation to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent as efficiently and effectively as possible. Unfortunately, too many ignore this important duty and are happy to mortgage the future of the next generation with reckless spending.
On top of the price tag, there have been no hearings and no markups on H.R. 6929.
Is this the standard the House wants to operate under--one where any piece of legislation can be fast-tracked to the floor without due consideration and scrutiny?
Under Democrat control, good governance has long been abandoned in the people's House.
In 2009, when Delphi Corporation completed its 4-year bankruptcy, its defined benefit pension plans were terminated and taken over by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, PBGC, a process that has been well-established. At that time, the Delphi pension plans were collectively underfunded by $7.2 billion. Delphi did not make required contributions to its pension plans in the 4 years it was moving through bankruptcy. The salaried employee plan, in particular, was only 48 percent funded with $2.4 billion in assets and liabilities of $5 billion.
Fast forward to today, and we are considering a bill that would dole out money like candy. Under this bill, participants would receive a retroactive lump-sum payment, or ``top-up,'' of the difference between what was paid by PBGC and what the plans would have paid had they not been terminated.
But here is the kicker, Madam Speaker: this top-up would come with an additional 6 percent interest, and all participants would receive their original monthly benefits moving forward.
Let's turn our attention to the precedent that this bill sets for the entire single-employer pension system. Currently, PBGC's single- employer insurance program is funded exclusively by premiums paid by employer plan sponsors and does not--does not--receive taxpayer dollars. PBGC is the trustee of over 5,000 terminated single-employer plans.
Madam Speaker, please pay attention to this next part. By topping up one plan, Congress will be pressured and expected to top up the remaining 5,000 terminated plans and every future terminated plan.
How many plans does PBGC currently insure?
More than 23,000 active, single-employer plans are currently insured.
So, Madam Speaker, what is next on the docket?
Should Congress roll up its sleeves and make whole every American's 401(k) plan that took a few hits?
Again, how about Americans who do not have a pension plan?
There are many of those. Imagine the harebrained schemes that Congress could start pulling out of its hat if given this encouragement. We should be protecting taxpayers, not feeding them to the wolves.
This bill is a slap in the face to fiscal responsibility. H.R. 6929's cash giveaway will force taxpayers to shoulder a cost of $800 million over the next decade and $1.3 billion in all to bail out underfunded, privately run pension plans.
Another bailout of failing pension plans does nothing but stick it to hardworking taxpayers. This bill simply underscores the fact that Congress is too misguided to focus on real issues.
Madam Speaker, hardworking taxpayers cannot afford more senseless bailouts. Enough is enough.
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Keller).
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good).
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner).
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, my colleagues say we are here to help people. Our first job is like the doctor's oath: First, do no harm. This bill does harm.
Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Davidson).
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, proponents of H.R. 6929 continue to cite the statistics that the salaried employee pension plan was 86 percent funded in 2009 and, therefore, should not have been terminated. This is misleading and simply not the case.
When the salaried employee plan was terminated in 2009, it was roughly 50 percent funded with $2.4 billion in assets and $5 billion in liabilities. Delphi had not made required contributions to the plan in the previous 4 years.
Further, Delphi was moving through bankruptcy proceedings, and the company stated publicly it was unable to fund its pension plans before reaching an agreement with PBGC to terminate the plans.
Delphi had not made required contributions to the pension plans in the 4 years it was in bankruptcy proceedings. Delphi was liquidating assets in bankruptcy, and the plan had only enough assets to pay for half of its benefit obligations.
Finally, if the Delphi salaried employee plan was truly as well funded as proponents suggest, then why did it not have enough assets to cover the benefits owed to workers and retirees?
Madam Speaker, this is a big problem for the taxpayers of this country when we start bailing out pension plans in this way. We have a process through the PBGC, and that process should be followed.
Madam Speaker, it is important, really important, to make sure the Record is accurate. Most Delphi salaried pension plan participants who are being discussed today either received no cuts in their pensions or saw cuts of less than 10 percent.
PBGC typically becomes a trustee of a single-employer plan when the employer that sponsors the plan declares bankruptcy and the plan has insufficient assets from which to pay all promised benefits. When PBGC becomes a trustee of a single-employer pension plan, plan participants receive their full benefits up to a statutory maximum benefit, a benefit set by Congress.
The maximum guarantee in 2009, the year of Delphi's bankruptcy, was $4,500 per month or $54,000 per year for retirees who began receiving benefits at age 65. That is a very high amount of money that many Americans will never earn per year, let alone have for retirement.
PBGC reported in 2019 that 84 percent of retirees who receive benefits from PBGC are paid the full benefit amounts they earned under their retirement plans, meaning they do not have their benefits reduced.
In the case of the Delphi salaried employee plan, 72 percent of participants were not affected by PBGC's statutory benefit limit. Of the remaining 28 percent, 36 percent saw less than a 10 percent reduction.
Madam Speaker, again, I am speaking for the Americans who will never get a pension benefit because they have worked so hard but never made enough money to have a pension or don't have employers that pay pension benefits. We are bailing out people who are making a lot of money.
Madam Speaker, wages aren't keeping up with inflation. A Washington Post economic columnist recently pointed out that workers are experiencing the biggest decline in years in inflation-adjusted pay. According to a new report, 75 percent of middle-income families say their ``income is falling behind the cost of living.''
Given persistent and rising inflation, H.R. 6929 is the last thing we should be considering. It will cost taxpayers nearly $800 million over 10 years and $1.3 billion in all to bail out Delphi's underfunded, privately run pension plan.
Americans across the country do not want to fork over their hard- earned dollars to fund a costly project that was cooked up in Congress, especially when many have their own retirement accounts to consider or have none at all.
By doubling down on an already failed strategy, taxpayers will be forced to cover the cost of this cash giveaway. This sets a terrible and troubling precedent that will embolden the Federal Government to bail out thousands of other privately run pensions.
Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to oppose this fiscally irresponsible catastrophe of a bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The first thing I will say, I never said that the bill was a partisan bill, and I would like to clarify the record on that point.
This amendment directs the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to issue a public request for information regarding the long-term solvency of the agency's single- and multiemployer insurance programs, and to submit legislative recommendations to Congress within 2 years.
I don't question the sincerity with which my colleague from Virginia offers this amendment. However, if H.R. 6929 is signed into law, this report will be a day late and a dollar short.
Last year, under the guise of COVID relief, congressional Democrats and President Biden enacted an uncapped taxpayer-funded bailout of failing and insolvent multiemployer pension plans. While the most recent estimate of the bailout indicates taxpayers are on the hook for $90 billion, without a cap on the total amount of spending, the bailout could cost much more.
Worse yet, Democrats refused to address the structural failures of the system, refused to hold plan trustees accountable, and encouraged further plan underfunding.
The Education and Labor Committee has been wrestling with the problems facing the multiemployer pension system and the looming insolvency of PBGC's insurance program for decades. The committee has held countless hearings on the topic. Congress even established a Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans, of which Chairman Scott and I were members.
We already know the problems with the system, and we don't need to wait another 2 years for PBGC to issue a report with recommendations. Plans do not adequately fund their promises. A comment was made about keeping promises. Well, we need to fund the plans. They overpromise, undercontribute, and refuse to make responsible adjustments, ultimately, digging themselves into deeper holes.
Further, PBGC has submitted legislative recommendations regarding multiemployer pensions that Democrats have routinely ignored. For years, under both the Obama and Trump administrations, PBGC recommended Congress establish a variable rate premium for multiemployer plans to align premiums better with the risk these plans pose to PBGC.
Single-employer plans pay a much higher flat rate premium as well as a variable-rate premium. Multiemployer plans should do the same. Single-employer plans are also subject to much stricter funding requirements that better protect the benefits of workers and retirees.
Meanwhile, poorly managed multiemployer plans fail to collect adequate contributions for the benefits they promise and bet on risky investments in hopes of making up the difference.
While I appreciate the amendment's implicit admission that throwing billions of dollars at multiemployer plans has not solved the problem, this fig leaf amendment does nothing to address the fundamental flaws of the underlying bill.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to close.
Madam Speaker, again, I don't think we need another study. We don't need to delay action on this 2 years. What we need to do is increase premiums and impose stronger funding requirements.
The plans are underfunded. It doesn't take an accountant or a rocket scientist to figure that out. Pogo said, ``We have met the enemy, and he is us.'' We, in Congress, are the problem. We need to do this.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
Pursuant to clause 9 of Rule XX, this 15-minute vote on passage of the bill will be followed by 5-minute votes on:
A motion to recommit H.R. 3771;
Passage of H.R. 3771, if ordered;
Motion to recommit H.R. 4040;
Passage of H.R. 4040, if ordered; and,
The motion to suspend the rules with respect to the following measures:
H.R. 623;
H.R. 3952;
H.R. 3962;
H.R. 4551;
H.R. 5313;
H.R. 6933;
H.R. 7132;
H.R. 7361;
H.R. 7569;
H.R. 7624;
H.R. 7733; and
H.R. 7981.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 254, nays 175, not voting 1, as follows: [Roll No. 396] YEAS--254 Adams Aderholt Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Axne Baird Balderson Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Bergman Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brooks Brown (MD) Brown (OH) Brownley Bush Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carey Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chabot Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Cole Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davidson Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fitzpatrick Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Gallego Garamendi Garbarino Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gibbs Gohmert Golden Gomez Gonzalez (OH) Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Huizenga Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jacobs (NY) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (TX) Jones Joyce (OH) Kahele Kaptur Katko Keating Kelly (IL) Kelly (PA) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latta Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McClain McCollum McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Meijer Meng Mfume Moolenaar Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pence Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Rose Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, Austin Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Spartz Speier Stansbury Stanton Stauber Steil Stevens Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Tenney Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Turner Underwood Upton Vargas Veasey Velazquez Walberg Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Webster (FL) Welch Wenstrup Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth NAYS--175 Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Banks Barr Bentz Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brady Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Calvert Cammack Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cawthorn Cheney Cline Cloud Clyde Comer Conway Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Ellzey Emmer Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Fischbach Fitzgerald Fleischmann Flood Flores Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Garcia (CA) Gimenez Gonzales, Tony Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Harris Harshbarger Hern Herrell Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Hollingsworth Hudson Issa Jackson Johnson (LA) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (PA) Keller Kelly (MS) Kim (CA) Kinzinger Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn LaTurner Lesko Letlow Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClintock McHenry McKinley Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Mullin Murphy (NC) Nehls Newhouse Norman Obernolte Owens Palazzo Palmer Perry Pfluger Posey Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schrader Schweikert Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Steel Stefanik Steube Stewart Taylor Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Wagner Walorski Waltz Weber (TX) Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Zeldin NOT VOTING--1 Hartzler
Mr. ROUZER and Mrs. KIM of California changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Mrs. HAYES, Messrs. CHABOT, PENCE, and MEIJER changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. MEMBERS RECORDED PURSUANT TO HOUSE RESOLUTION 8, 117TH CONGRESS Babin (Jackson) Bass (Neguse) Blumenauer (Beyer) Bourdeaux (Correa) Brown (MD) (Trone) Bush (Jeffries) Carter (TX) (Weber (TX)) Casten (Neguse) Cherfilus-McCormick (Neguse) Crist (Wasserman Schultz) DeSaulnier (Beyer) Evans (Beyer) Guthrie (Barr) Jones (Beyer) Kahele (Correa) Kinzinger (Meijer) Kirkpatrick (Pallone) Meeks (Jeffries) Moore (WI) (Beyer) Payne (Pallone) Ruppersberger (Trone) Rush (Bishop (GA)) Sires (Pallone) Stevens (Kuster) Stewart (Wenstrup) Taylor (Fallon) Thompson (CA) Beyer) Thompson (MS) (Bishop (GA)) Thompson (PA) (Keller) Vargas (Correa) Walorski (Banks) Williams (GA) (Neguse) Wilson (SC) (Norman)
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