From Reuters.com, “U.S. Senate leader to keep trying on pension bill“:
Senate Majority leader Bill Frist said on Monday he would keep trying to revive stalled legislation to reform the funding of corporate pensions.But another senator who held up consideration of the bill earlier this month, Ohio Republican Mike DeWine, was still blocking the legislation on Monday, and it was unclear how the impasse could be resolved.
“We will continue to work for consent on pensions,” Frist told the Senate as the chamber resumed work after a one-week recess. The Tennessee Republican called the pension proposal a “critical piece of legislation.”
. . . Meanwhile Sen. Mike Enzi, a co-sponsor of the blocked pension reform bill, is threatening to use a piece of budget legislation to dramatically raise insurance premiums paid to the PBGC.
The proposal to raise premiums is due to come to a vote on Tuesday in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee chaired by Enzi, a Wyoming Republican. It would raise PBGC premiums to $46.75 per participant, per year, from the current $19.
The blocked pension reform bill would raise insurance premiums to $30 per plan participant.
PlanSponsor.com reports that “the proposal would also force companies that give over their pension plans in bankruptcy to pay a special premium – $1,250 per plan participant, in each of the first three years after emerging from bankruptcy, according to a summary of the proposal released by HELP committee aides.”