House drops pension reform

WASHINGTON – The House is abandoning plans to move in the waning days of this congressional session on major legislation to shore up the financially troubled employer-based pension system, a Republican leader said Tuesday.

Acting Majority Leader Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said there was “really no likelihood” that the House would vote any time soon on a bill to overhaul traditional defined-benefit pension plans.

The Senate last month, on a 97-2 vote, approved its version of the legislation.

Blunt and Democratic leaders blamed each other for the failure to move on the pension issue.

Congressional leaders had seen the pensions bill as a significant way, in the wake of the failure to gain support for Social Security reform, of showing the administration’s efforts to protect the retirement security of American workers.

The bill would have tightened rules to stop companies from underfunding their plans – a shortfall currently estimated at $450 billion – while raising the premiums that companies must pay to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

The PBGC, which operates on those premiums, recently estimated that it is in deficit by about $22 billion.