Bill aimed at shoring up pension funds
Union members on Capitol Hill to support Brown.
Union members arrived on Capitol Hill Thursday to hear Sen. Sherrod Brown announce a bill to protect their pension plans.
The bill would target multi-employer pension plans, which have been cutting payments to retirees.
Currently, the federal Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation manages the pensions of groups such as the United Mine Workers Association and the Teamsters, who were both present to support the bill.
UMWA Director of Governmental Affairs Phil Smith blamed the cuts on the 2008 recession, which devalued the investments companies had made to pay for the plans.
The PBGC receives no taxpayer dollars, but instead depends on money from the companies whose pensions it manages.
According to Brown, D-Ohio, the bill would create a new federal agency to make long-term, low-interest loans to pension providers while the PBGC made up the difference.
The loans would come from the sale of Treasury bonds to financial institutions and are intended for pension plans to make longterm investments they could use to pay off their loans.
The bill has only Democratic backers so far.
Brown called for the assembled unions to keep pressure “especially on Republicans.” He added: “This isn’t partisan. This bill is about you, the men and women who have traveled here today.”
Ohio lawmakers get behind defense bill
The defense bill headed to President Donald Trump for his signature includes contributions from Ohio’s two senators, and U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said the final version of the bill includes language pushed by him and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., to improve the ability of the United States to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation from enemies. The language helps promote better coordination between the Departments of State and Defense in countering foreign propaganda, said Portman.
“By better coordinating and synchronizing our government’s response to foreign propaganda and disinformation, the United States will be more successful in ensuring that our ideas win,” he said. “I am confident that, with the help of our bipartisan bill and proper coordination between government agencies, the disinformation and propaganda used against us, our allies, and our interests will fail.”
Portman and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, also backed amendments aimed at supporting the research mission at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The amendments would increase payments to researchers who develop innovations and technology for the nation’s military; provide increased flexibility for minor military construction; support the Manufacturing Technology Division at Wright-Patt and make it more difficult for the Pentagon to shift project management responsibility away from Wright-Patt to others in the Pentagon; and increase collaboration between the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration on unmanned aerial systems.
On the House floor last week, Turner, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, urged his colleagues to support the defense bill, saying it is vital to the nation’s ability to keep the country safe.
“If we do not begin with this budget to set favorable conditions to start to reverse the high-risk defense posture we currently have, we will significantly jeopardize our military’s advantage that we’ve taken for granted in past conflicts and steadystate operations,” he said.
The measure passed 35670.