ATA Hails House Passage of Pension Bill

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merican Trucking Associations hailed the House's passage Thursday of comprehensive pension-reform legislation designed to improve the solvency of single, multi-employer and so-called hybrid pension plans.

“This was a bipartisan effort reflecting compromises between labor and management,” ATA President Bill Graves said in a statement. “Many industries, including trucking, have been concerned with the pension issue for some time and its passage provides a measure of certainty that is greatly appreciated by the business community.”

The Pension Protection Act of 2005 was designed to revamp traditional pension plans and prevent a taxpayer bailout of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The bill must still be reconciled with Senate pension-reform legislation that passed in November.

PBGC, the self-financed federal agency that insures pension plans for 44 million workers, reportedly has deficits of $22.8 billion. Single employer participants have dropped to less than 30,000 from 95,000 in 1980 as companies drop or replace defined-benefit plans.