Ohio’s Portman joins committee studying pensions
WASHINGTON — Sen. Rob Portman will join the joint select committee tasked with solving a pension crisis that has endangered workers and retirees nationwide, including some 60,000 in Ohio.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R–Ky., announced the appointment of Ohio’s Portman late Tuesday. The committee was created through a budget deal enacted in the Senate in February.
“This committee has an opportunity to resolve this multi-employer pension crisis once and for all,” Portman, a Republican, said. “I am hopeful that we can achieve a comprehensive and permanent solution that protects earned pensions, protects taxpayer dollars, prevents the insolvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and alleviates pressure on employers.”
The 16– member House–Senate committee, created at the insistence of Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, will conduct at least five public meetings, including one outside of Washington to make it easier for the members to hear from retirees affected by the crisis. The group has until November to craft a plan that would be put before the House and Senate for an up– or–down vote.
Under the agreement reached Wednesday, neither the House nor the Senate would be permitted to amend the agreement.
Brown, a Democrat, will co–chair the commission along with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R–Utah. Republicans Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee, and Michael Crapo, of Idaho, also will serve on the commission. Brown, meanwhile, joins fellow Senate Democrats Tina Smith of Minnesota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota on the panel.
House members on the commission include Republican Reps. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Phil Roe of Tennessee, Vern Buchanan of Florida and David Schweikert of Arizona, as well as Democratic Reps. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, Bobby Scott of Virginia, Donald Norcross of New Jersey and Debbie Dingell of Michigan.
At issue are multi– employer pensions that were created to allow employers to pool resources and provide their workers with retirement security. The plans, negotiated by a union, are run by trustees selected by the union and employers. For years, most multi–employer plans ran at a surplus.
But market crashes between 2000 and 2009, corporate bankruptcies and new laws have rendered many plans virtually unsalvageable.
Though some 10 million workers are served by 1,400 multi–employer plans nationwide, some 150 to 200 plans, covering 1.5 million workers and retirees, could run out of money within the next 20 years, according to the Pension Rights Center. Among them: Central States, a pension program that claims some 50,000 members in Ohio.