House Hearing on Multiemployer Pension Reform Focused on AGC Support Recommendations

On Oct. 29, the House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, held a hearing entitled, “Strengthening the Multiemployer Pension System: How Will Proposed Reforms Affect Employers, Workers, and Retirees?" The hearing is the latest in a series of hearings on multiemployer pension reform and includes recommendations on reform from stakeholders. Starting in 2011, the committee has been examining the challenges facing the multiemployer pension system, including changing demographics, unfunded benefit liabilities, and the projected insolvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.  The hearing focused on The National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP) comprehensive recommendations to reform the multiemployer pension system, which includes new plan designs and additional tools for plans in deep financial distress. AGC participated in the NCCMP’s nearly two year effort, working to ensure that the interests of the construction industry are fairly and justly represented.  The hearing was an opportunity to discuss how NCCMP’s proposed reforms might affect workers, employers, and retirees.  AGC remains hopeful legislation to overhaul the system will occur during the current congress. For more information on the hearing, click here. You can find more information – including the full report – on the proposed solutions offered up by the unique partnership of business and labor groups, including AGC, which brought these issues to the Hill here.  You can also find an extremely helpful document on the myths versus facts of the abovementioned "Solutions, Not Bailouts" here. For more information, please contact Jim Young at (202) 547-0133 or youngj@agc.org.