Press Release - Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's Financial Results

Press Release - Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's Financial Results

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance and a key author of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, made the following comment on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's Fiscal Year 2006 financial results released today.

"It's good to see the new pension reforms already working as intended. I'm glad the Senate-passed airline provisions included in the final bill already have reduced the PBGC's deficit by billions of dollars. Our challenge was to look out for retirees, employees, and taxpayers. We needed to make sure the PBGC covers the pensions of those whose employers legitimately can't cover their obligations. At the same time, we had to protect taxpayers from potentially bailing out a huge PBGC deficit caused by companies that too easily dumped their pensions on the PBGC's doorstep and walked away. But I don't want to overstate the reforms as a panacea for all pension funding problems. They'll make a difference, but Congress needs to stay on top of the situation. Until this year, we hadn't considered a major overhaul of pension guarantee legislation since 1974. It's hard to get the horse back in the barn after the door's been opened."

http://grassley.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=5214&Month=11&Year=2006