When it rains, it pours — in a single week we now have an announcement of a second congressional hearing on retirement plan issues. Both hearings are slated for next week.
This time the focus is defined benefit plans. Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, has announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on defined benefit pension plans offered by private sector employers, including both multi-employer plans and single employer plans. Specifically, the hearing will focus on some of the challenges facing “employers, employees, and retirees who rely on defined benefit pension plans to help provide retirement security,” as well as the funding rules governing multi-employer plans, as well as selected issues that affect single employer plans.
It was the second congressional hearing announced this week for next week, following the announcement that the Senate Finance Committee would hold a hearing on retirement policy on Sept. 16 (see Senate Finance to Focus on Retirement Policy). The House hearing, which appears to have been pulled together rather quickly, is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, in 1100 Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 10:15 a.m.
Insights as to the focus of the hearing might be gleaned from the announcement’s reference to H.R. 5381 (introduced July 31, 2014, by Tiberi), and H.R. 2117 (introduced May 22, 2013, by Ranking Member Richard Neal, D-Mass.) which were “designed to protect longer-service participants in defined benefit plans that are closed to new entrants by allowing cross-testing between defined benefit and defined contribution plans.” Other issues cited as affecting single employer plans include the impact of the in-service distribution rules on employees’ retirement schedules and the effect of mortality tables on funding requirements.
In announcing the House hearing, Chairman Tiberi said, “I have heard for years now from hundreds of businesses and nonprofits about the need for pension reforms, especially for defined benefit plans. Increasing pension costs have hampered both the job growth and capital investment needed to grow the economy and have threatened retirement security for American workers. The cost of doing nothing is too high a price to pay. This hearing will give us the opportunity to examine challenges facing, and opportunities to strengthen, the defined benefit pension system.”
Oral testimony at the hearing will be from invited witnesses only, but the announcement notes that “…any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Subcommittee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing”.
As we went to press, a list of those invited witnesses was not yet available. Stay tuned.
Additional details – and instructions on how to submit testimony for consideration – are available here.
