$1 Trillion Federal Budget Bill Threatens Pensions, Has "No Opportunity for Public Input," Says Rep. Louis Slaughter
Congress is due to vote on a 1,600 page federal budget Thursday, which while keeping the government running could have implications for pensions, election campaigns, funding for the Department of Homeland Security and bank regulations because of amendments.
House Rules Committee member Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said about the over 1,600 page bill, that it was "released in the middle of the night. Not one member of the committee has been able to read all the way through it or anything of it, I suppose. No opportunity for public input. No hearings. No committee markups. And no time to adequately consider $1.1 trillion in spending."
Slaughter went on to note, "This process goes against all of the transparency pledges that House Republicans themselves have made."
The White House said it supports the bill for investing in economic growth and government functions, funding the government's response to the Ebola epidemic and the administration's strategy to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The Obama Administration, however, objects to the inclusion of ideological and special interest riders. A rider that "would amend the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act," which would weaken a reform aimed at reducing taxpayer risk.
The administration is also opposed to a rider that would allow individual donors to contribute to national political party committee accounts for conventions, building and recounts. The administration "is disappointed the bill would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 27, 2015, at last year's levels."
Tucked into the spending bill is an amendment that overturns 40 years of federal law that could affect millions of middle-class people working in trucking, construction and supermarkets. The measure affects multiemployer pensions that have become badly underfunded, and some could run out of money within a few years.
Multiemployer pension funds were created where a group of businesses in the same industry join unions to provide pension coverage for employees. The plans cover 10 million U.S. workers, according to The Washington Post.
Many of the multiemployer pension funds were targeted by institutional investors by financial companies and banks in the pre-crash years, and they bought mortgage-backed securities, which subsequently imploded. They pension funds were sold a fraudulent product, which ended up depleting the fund.
There are 1,400 multiemployer plans, several dozen have failed and several other larger ones are moving toward insolvency. Another 200 plans covering 1.5 million workers are in danger of running out of money over the next two decades -- half could seek pension reductions for retirees in the near future.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal insurance program that backs private-sector pensions, has warned that its safety net backing the funds could collapse.
The measure would trim benefits for current retirees and raise the safety-net premiums on plans to help shore of PBGC.
"We thought our pension was secure," said Whitlow Wyatt, a retired trucker. "That was always the word. Now they are changing that."
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