[From the Congressional Record-Senate, Aug. 13, 1974] SUBMISSION OF CONFERENCE REPORT ON THE EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT AND INCOME SECURITY ACT OF 1974 (REPT. No. 93–1090) Mr. WILLIAMS submitted a report from the committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H.R. 2) to provide for pension reform, which was ordered to be printed. [The conference report filed by Mr. Williams (S. Rept. 93–1090) contained the same language as the conference report filed in the House by Mr. Perkins on August 12 (H. Rep. 93-1280), the text of which appears on pages 4277-4654.] 25-028 76 76 (Vol. III) (4655) [From the Congressional Record-House, Aug. 20, 1974] CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2, EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY ACT OF 1974 Mr. DENT. Mr. Speaker, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 2), Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and ask unanimous consent that the statement of the managers be read in lieu of the report. The Clerk read the title of the bill. The SPEAKER. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Pennsylvania? There was no objection. The Clerk read the statement. (For conference report and statement, see proceedings of the House of August 12, 1974, p. 3923.) Mr. DENT (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the statement be dispensed with. The SPEAKER. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Pennsylvania? There was no objection. The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Pennsylvania is recognized. Mr. DENT. Mr. Speaker, under an agreement, I will take 15 minutes on this side. Then, I will yield 15 minutes for the use of the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, Mr. Ullman. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Perkins). Mr. PERKINS. Mr. Speaker, first let me compliment the distinguished members of the subcommittee headed by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent) without whose single efforts over the years this legislation would not be possible. I wish to strongly commend the minority members headed by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Erlenborn), as well as the members of the Committee on Ways and Means headed by the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Ullman), the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Griffiths), the minority members of the Ways and Means Committee and all the members of the Standing and Conference Committees who have made a contribution to one of the most important pieces of legislation which has ever been brought before this body. Mr. Speaker, I have been in the Congress some 25 years, and have received literally thousands of letters which I have in my files from individuals who have worked in the coal mines and were never able to get any welfare or pension benefits from the United Mine Workers Welfare and Pension Fund. I am talking about individuals who have worked more than 10 years, 15 years, and in many instances 20 years and 25 years. They have been denied needed benefits because of, we may say, arbitrary and hyper-technical interpretations of collective bargaining agreements to the effect that if they were not working on such and such days back in 1946 and 1947, they were just eliminated altogether from the pension plan. This no longer will be the case. We have basic minimum pension rights written into this bill which should have been encated many, many years ago to protect the rights of working people. Mr. Speaker, to summarize what is being done today let me stateafter years of study and investigation, hearings and debate, after endless hours of work, pension reform legislation of an historic character is almost complete. Four committees of the Congress-the Senate Committees on Labor and Public Welfare and Finance and the House Committees on Ways and Means and Education and Labor-joined in their efforts and have contributed meaningfully of their experience and knowledge. These committees shared in a most unprecedented effort, together with the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation, to produce a bill which otherwise would have been impossible of achieving. In one sense, the purpose of this conference report is relatively simple. It is designed to reduce sharply the number of people who pay money into private pension plans year after year expecting eventually to receive retirement income only to have their hopes dashed and end up getting nothing. It is the aim of this conference report to make pension plans more equitable and more sound. Workers will have to be permitted to participate in a covered pension plan within a reasonable time and at a reasonable age. Participating workers will have to achieve a vested interest after limited periods of service with an employer. Minimum funding standards will go a long way toward insuring the solvency of pension plans, toward insuring that when a worker retires there will be adequate dollars available to pay his pension. The adequacy of a pension plan's assets will be insured against the risk of termination by insuring the unfunded portion of the benefits. The conference report also substantially raises the minimum standards of fiduciary conduct required of trustees, administrators, and others dealing with retirement plans and resources. These minimum standards will be enforced through criminal and civil sanctions. In addition, more adequate public disclosure of a plan's administrative and financial affairs will henceforth be required. Mr. Speaker, while this is a most important piece of legislation, it is not perfect. Very likely it will not, at least in the short run, encourage a dramatic increase in the number or proportion of working Americans who are covered by private pension plans, and substantially less than half of the work force are presently covered. Mr. Speaker, this pension reform legislation is of critical importance to the congressional district in eastern Kentucky which it is my privilege to represent. It has been a source of great regret to me over the years to encounter time after time cases of miners who have been denied benefits which they had every reason to expect from the United Mine Workers welfare and retirement plan. I have literally hundreds upon hundreds of letters in my files letters seeking my assistance because of denials on account of rigid, arbitrary, and unreasonable eligibility requirements. Recently the settlement of two class action suits against the welfare and retirement fund of the United Mine Workers confirmed what many of us had believed for quite some time. That is, that the eligi bility standards of that plan being administered in an arbitrary and capricious fashion. U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell had even earlier upheld charges of mismanagement brought against the miners' pension fund and had forced the trustees to step down. I am hopeful that this legislation will take a giant step forward, not only in making welfare and pension benefits to miners administered in a fair and equitable manner and with assurances of security, but also the thousands of other workers in other fields of labor who have had similar unfortunate experiences. As I have stated, the bill does not cover everything that we might desire but it is a beginning that should have been made long ago. The vesting requirement, however important, may only insure a minimum level of payments. The conference report does not undertake to raise the level of benefits paid under existing plans, and they are often much too meager. The "rule of 45," one of the alternatives among the three vesting rules, some say will encourage employers to hire only younger workers, discriminating against older workers because of higher costs implicit in this plan. We hope it will not turn out that way, but some are genuinely concerned. This report makes no pretense of reducing the tragic impact of inflation on pension plans. The erosion of retirement benefits will continue to occur until we as a nation either conquer inflation or gain more knowledge than we have now on how its effects may be reduced for our Nation's pensioners. No, Mr. Speaker, this bill is not perfect, and it may be that in the next Congress amendments will be necessary. On a bill so vastly complicated some consequences are almost certainly unforeseen and some problems will arise, but we will continue vigorous oversight of the act. The conferees agreed on a joint task force effort to study the impact of this legislation on pension plans and to solve a number of important problems on which we have far too little information on which to legislate at this time. Mr. Speaker, this legislation involves something in excess of 36 million workers. The total resources of pension plans are estimated to be in excess of $150 billion. That amount is increasing in excess of $10 billion annually. No one knows exactly how many pension plans there are; and, this legislation is enormously complex. If it is going to meet the hopes that we all have for it, both the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service are going to need to expand their personnel rolls quickly to include the needed lawyers, accountants, actuaries, investment advisers, and administrators." I would hope that the labor movement, the business, banking and financial communities will assist the agencies in recruiting the first rate people that are needed to make this legislation a success. I would urge also that the utmost cooperation of the Civil Service Commis F Σ Re as well as te Mr. PENT. The answer to that is "Yes." In the pension field, a setem Las been defined by Peastry regulations for many years to include both partial and complete terminations Treasury Regulation setien 1.461-6 bi 2). In accordance with this usage, ret eben es to termination in section 482,0)(9) of the act won'd a'so refer to either a complete or partial termination. Mr. PERKINS. Mr. Speaker, I wonder whether the gentleman from Pennsylvania will please answer this question: In developing regula tions to determine "hours of service" as set forth in section 20o (a) (3) (C), will the Secretary be able to take into account the recordkeeping problems of individual plans or industries? Mr. DENT. The answer to that, as I think both the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means and I agree, is that it is contemplated that in applying the standard of 1,000 hours of service as constitut ing a year of service the regulations will recogni, e various alternative methods of computing hours of service to take into account the pecu liar problems of different plans or industries, For example, in some industries correct records of hours worked may be difficult to obtam. but the equivalent of "hours of service" can be arrived at from data concerning the earnings of workers. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the pentleman from New York (Mr. Binggi). (Mr. Biaggi asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. BIAGGI. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the chairman of this subcommittee, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent). I know the work that he has done in con nection with this monumental legislation. Right fully called the Dent bill, it is a bill which, when enacted into law and signed by the Pres dent, will go down as one of the milestones in congressional legislative activities. The gentleman from Pennsylvania has labored 7 long years and he |