Rep. Stevens defeats GOP Motion to Recommit, securing final passage of Butch Lewis Act and protecting pensions for 42,000 Michiganders
WASHINGTON—Congresswoman Haley Stevens (MI-11) voted to protect pensions for more than a million retirees, including more than 40,000 Michiganders, and defeated a GOP Motion to Recommit to secure final passage of the bipartisan Butch Lewis Act.
As several multiemployer pension plans quickly run out of money to pay promised benefits, more than 1.3 million workers and retirees across the country are at risk of losing their hard-earned pensions through no fault of their own. H.R. 397, the Butch Lewis Act, would protect workers and retirees by creating the Pension Rehabilitation Administration (PRA) within the Treasury Department and allowing failing pension plans to borrow money from the PRA to remain solvent.
If Congress does not act to get these pension plans back on their feet, there would be catastrophic consequences for workers, retirees, employers and taxpayers. According to one expert, congressional inaction could cost taxpayers between $170 billion to $240 billion over 10 years.
“The multiemployer pension crisis is not some distant event to prepare for years from now,” said Congresswoman Stevens. “It is happening today. If we do not act now, the problem will continue to get worse. Over 100 multiemployer pension plans are projected to run out of money within the next 20 years. If we allow these plans to fail, retirees will see their pension benefits cut by 90 percent or more. These are benefits that our retirees have worked hard for and earned, and this outcome would devastate our middle class. I have been a proud supporter of the Butch Lewis Act, which presents the best solution we have to fix this problem while protecting retirees, businesses, and taxpayers in the process. I applaud my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for voting to pass this important legislation, and I urge the Senate to pass this legislation and save taxpayers billions of dollars in the long run.”
Watch Rep. Stevens floor speech HERE.
Transcript:
“The bill before us today is not a bailout, it is a backstop and it is a solution to a boiling point that we ignore at the peril of thousands of workers who are now faced with financial catastrophe in retirement. If we do nothing with this multiemployer pension crisis, taxpayers will pay the price. If we do nothing, our Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation will tumble. If we do nothing, 1.3 million hard working Americans will lose what they paid into their entire working life. To the Teamster, who is playing by the rules. To the carpenter, who is already seeing a drop in his monthly benefits – we are here today to do something.
The ringing irony that the very people opposing this bill, are some of the very people who voted to pass a tax relief act for the wealthiest corporations and biggest banks, ballooning our deficit by $1.9 trillion. We scratch our heads and we ask: why is it that you cannot lift a finger for the middle class?
Today, we will deliver for the American people, and save the pensions of those who never ask for anything! Those who are not armed with the lobbyists, but rather for the people who make sure our groceries stores are stocked, our cars are made, and our safety standards are met.
Take it from me my friends. I know what it was like to be on the phone with the PBGC when the auto industry needed our help.
I know what it means when they tell us that these plans will run insolvent by 2025.
I know what it’s like to be working at the Department of the Treasury during the largest economic crisis of our times, when Republicans and Democrats come together shelving political dogma, to make a uniquely federal problem right.
Butch Lewis is a good deal and the kind of deal you make to protect our middle class and the economic security of so many.
This is what you do. Make government work for us. Pass Butch Lewis! Save retirement for those who worked for it!”
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