Portman: Politics could doom panel

WASHINGTON — Even before it has begun its work, a committee trying to solve a pension crisis that imperils the retirement benefits of 1.5 million retirees nationwide, including 60,000 Ohioans, risks dividing along partisan lines, an Ohio senator warned Wednesday.

Making his first comments before the Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said Wednesday he is concerned about reports that Democrats on the panel had met privately beforehand to agree on strategy.

Portman, one of 16 members drawn from both parties and both chambers of Congress, said he has worked on similarly structured panels before, only to see them fail to find a solution because they lined up along partisan lines. He said lawmakers serving on the committee have to shed their partisan divisions because, if they don’t, “this is done … we might as well not waste our time.”

“It’s only an opportunity if we really look at this differently … and figure out how to go to the data, go to the information, come up with a longer-term solution that works, and not be stuck on our individual biases or strong opinions as to what we think might be best,” Portman said.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, a co-chairman of the panel, said that although Democrats on the panel met beforehand, he also met with GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah and others on the committee and has been holding bipartisan meetings on the issue for months.

“I start with no preconditions,” he said, vowing, “This is going to work.”

The panel has until November to craft a plan that would be put before both the House and Senate for up-ordown votes.

At issue are multiemployer pensions created to allow employers to pool resources and provide their workers with retirement security. About 10 million workers are served by 1,400 multi-employer plans nationwide; 150 to 200 plans, covering 1.5 million workers and retirees, could run out of money within 20 years, according to the Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit consumeradvocacy organization.

Brown said that although he likes a bill he has introduced with fellow committee member Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., he is hopeful that the panel will come up with a “panoply” of options.

“This is probably the most important thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Brown said.