KEITH HENNESSEY ON THE NEW HIGHWAY BILL’S PENSION PROVISIONS: How to avoid shafting future retirees & creating another bailout.

Congress will soon vote on a final version of a two-year highway spending bill. Press reports suggest the just-concluded agreement includes a “pension funding stabilization” provision from the Senate version of the bill. This means that any Member of Congress who votes for the final bill will be (a) shafting some future retirees in defined benefit pension plans and (b) increasing the risk of a future taxpayer bailout of a government-run corporation that insures pension plans. Congress can avoid both these bad things simply by removing this provision from the final version of the bill.

I wonder if they will? “No one lobbies on behalf of future retirees who face increased risk of having their pension benefits cut when their employer goes bankrupt. No one lobbies on behalf of the taxpayer who faces increased risk of paying for a future PBGC bailout.”