Portman bill protects pension benefits by expanding voting rights

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) on March 14 sponsored a bipartisan bill to protect multiemployer pension payments by allowing workers and retirees to also vote on pending potential benefit cuts. 

“Ohio workers have worked hard for years, played by the rules, and paid into their pensions for decades,” Sen. Portman said last week. “As a matter of basic fairness, they deserve a role in determining how to bring these pensions to solvency, and this bill ensures they have a voice in this process.”

Sen. Portman introduced the Pension Accountability Act, S. 833, which would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 regarding participant votes on the suspension of benefits under multiemployer plans in critical and declining status, according to the congressional record summary. 

Joining Sen. Portman in introducing S. 833 are U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

The Ohio senators both opposed the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA) enacted in 2014, according to Sen. Portman’s statement, because it hasn’t prevented the pending insolvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

The PBGC is a U.S. government agency that pays monthly retirement benefits up to a guaranteed maximum to more than 861,000 retirees in 4,919 single-employer pension plans that have ended. It is projected to become insolvent in 2025, according to November 2017 congressional testimony from PBGC Director Tom Reeder. 

S. 833, said Portman, would amend the voting procedures under the MPRA to help Ohio workers and others around the nation who are being shut out of the reform process by current law, which permits critically underfunded multiemployer pension plans within 20 years of insolvency to cut pension benefits if such reductions would prevent insolvency by a more than 50 percent chance, according to a statement from Sen. Portman’s office. 

If enacted, S. 833 would make the participant vote binding in all situations and a majority vote would be required for any pension cuts to occur.

The bill also would ensure a fair vote by counting only the ballots that are returned. Unreturned ballots would no longer be counted as a “yes” vote, according to the statement. 

Sen. Portman is concerned by plans divulged earlier this year by both the Southwest Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters Pension Plan and the Toledo Roofers Local No. 134 Pension Plan, which satisfy the MPRA requirements. The groups have started the voting process, the senator said, and roughly 5,000 Ohio carpenters in the Southwest Carpenters Plan, as well as retirees, could face pension cuts up to 70 percent by April 1. 

“What Washington doesn’t understand is that workers sat at the negotiating table and gave up raises because they were counting on these pensions when they retired,” said Sen. Brown. “It’s common sense that these workers should also have a seat at the table when negotiating the future of the pensions they fought so hard for.”

Steven Sprague, a 46-year member of the Southwest Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters Pension Plan, applauded Sens. Portman and Brown for their support via S. 833.

“Many retirees including myself will likely take pension cuts of over 50 percent under current law by April 1 and the bipartisan consensus in Congress that we should NOT have a rigged vote in favor of these cuts, is encouraging,” he said. 

Support for S. 833 also has come in from the National United Committee to Protect Pensions, as well as the Pension Rights Center.

S. 833 now is under review by the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.