People may not like it, but pensions are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. At some point people have to start taking some responsibility for their own lives and retirement. Here's an article today concerning the Snow nomination.
Senators Seek Pension Assurances from Snow
By John Crawley
story.news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic senators were seeking to win promises on worker pension protections from Treasury Secretary nominee John Snow on Thursday and left open the possibility of trying to block his confirmation if they fail to get assurances.
Tom Harkin of Iowa and Richard Durbin of Illinois said they would press Snow on proposed Bush administration changes to corporate pension rules that they say could affect millions of workers, particularly older ones, and billions of dollars in retirement savings.
"I want a real solid commitment from this administration they will be fair to older workers -- that they will protect them and their pensions every single day on the job," Harkin told reporters at a news conference.
Snow's nomination was approved by the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday and sent to the full chamber. Harkin and Durbin said there was "no hold" on Snow's nomination now, but signaled they could go that route if he did not allay their concerns on the proposed pension changes.
"We want to talk to him about the proposed rule to see what kind of assurances he can give," Harkin said.
Durbin said he was encouraged after a conversation with Snow, a former railroad executive, on Wednesday.
The proposed guidelines would advise companies on how they can avoid certain challenges when they convert their traditional pension systems to so-called "cash balance" plans.
The Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) placed a moratorium on approving new cash balance plans four years ago after a flood of worker complaints claimed they were age discriminatory.
Traditional retirement plans are based on longevity and salary rate in the last few years of employment.
OPTION TO CHOOSE
Cash balance plans incorporate a percentage of employee earnings, plus interest. Absent any bonuses, younger workers would tend to benefit more than their older colleagues because they have more time to earn interest.
Durbin said workers should at least be given the option of choosing which plan they wanted.
There are more than 800 age discrimination complaints pending before the government over cash-balance conversions, congressional officials said.
In a letter to President Bush (news - web sites), more than 200 members of the House of Representatives and Senate urged the administration to withdraw the pension changes, which it proposed in December.
Some industries are facing huge pension liabilities and soaring labor costs, and are aggressively seeking ways to save money. Delta Air Lines recently said it could save $500 million per year by making the switch to a cash-balance plan.
The federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which insures the pensions of 44 million people, has seen last year's $8 billion surplus eroded by growing pension fund failures.
Between 300 and 700 companies have changed to cash-balance plans and another 300 are waiting for IRS approval to make the conversion, the letter to Bush said.
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