At a hearing today before the Senate Special Committee on Aging, the PBGC Acting Director Vince Snowbarger will speak about how the PBGC will post a $33.5 billion deficit for the first half of fiscal year 2009. The Hearing is entitled “No Guarantees: As Pension Plans Crumble, Can PBGC Deliver?”
More from this press release here about his testimony:
The increase in the PBGCs deficit is driven primarily by a drop in interest rates and by plan terminations, not by investment losses, Snowbarger states in his written testimony. The PBGC has sufficient funds to meet its benefit obligations for many years because benefits are paid monthly over the lifetimes of beneficiaries, not as lump sums. Nevertheless, over the long term, the deficit must be addressed.