Pregnancy and Trauma Care Access Protection Act of 2004 - Motion to Proceed

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE

PREGNANCY AND TRAUMA CARE ACCESS PROTECTION ACT OF 2004-MOTION TO PROCEED
PENSION FUNDING EQUITY ACT

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I want to briefly address a conference report that we will hopefully be voting on in the Senate this week; that is, the conference report called the Pension Funding Equity Act.

The House of Representatives passed this bill overwhelmingly last week. This is a bill that addresses the urgent need to establish an appropriate interest rate for determining pension plan liabilities. The conference agreement provides for a temporary replacement only for the 30-year Treasury bond in determining the pension plan's liabilities.

The Government stopped issuing this bond in 2001, and continuing to use this outdated interest rate would require companies to make unnecessarily large contributions to the pension plans.

If this change is not made, the administration estimates it will cost American companies $80 billion over the next 2 years. This is $80 billion over the next 2 years, not the standard 10 years by which we usually measure legislation.

This is $80 billion that companies could put to better use creating jobs, purchasing equipment, providing raises to workers, or pursuing any number of worthwhile business activities.

This is legislation that cannot wait. It needs to be passed this week. A previous temporary replacement rate expired January 1 of this year, 2004. Unless the Senate acts prior to the recess, by the end of this week, companies will be required to make the first of their inflated contributions based on the flawed interest rate on April 15, while we are not here. So this is it; the last opportunity to address this great inequity is this week. Again, these are funds that companies could otherwise use to create jobs, invest in new equipment, and provide raises to workers.

I believe I am safe in saying that every Member of the body has heard from his or her constituents about the need to solve this problem before April 15. The House recognized the urgency of this matter and passed this conference agreement on a bipartisan vote of 336 to 69 last Friday. That was an overwhelming bipartisan recognition that this conference report needs to become law and needs to become law now. It is critically important that the Senate do the same and send this to the President for his signature before April 15.

We spend a lot of time talking about jobs and job security on the Senate floor, and we should be talking about jobs and job security. This pensions conference report is an opportunity to stop talking and start acting. We ought to seize this opportunity and pass this very much needed legislation this week.

I yield the floor.