Measure to affect pension funds

A provision for multiemployer funds is opposed by the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House prepared to vote on a bill that would save employers billions of dollars in pension contributions, despite White House objections and strong opposition in the Senate.
The bill would rewrite the formula companies use to figure how much money they need to put into their pension funds, at a projected savings to companies of $80 billion over the next two years.
The White House opposes a provision that would provide relief to multiemployer plans -- a smaller group of funds run jointly by unions and management in such fields as trucking and construction.
Here's the objection
The White House has threatened to veto the bill if it contains such a provision. The administration argued that the multiemployer plans don't need as much financial help, and lawmakers shouldn't encourage those pensions to lower their contributions.
Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said the veto threat should not be ignored.
"I think they're serious," he said. "Their position was no multiemployer at all."
The House was beginning debate Friday.
The bill has been stalled in the House and Senate, primarily over Senate language that would provide relief to the nation's 1,700 multiemployer plans.
House-Senate negotiators reached a compromise Thursday under which only the neediest 4 percent of multiemployer plans would get help, a decision some senators blasted as insufficient.
"How can we ignore the relief they need when Republicans are leaning over backward to help big corporations with their pensions?" said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
The legislation also would help financially struggling airlines and steel companies with underfunded pensions cut back on the amount they are required to pay into "catch-up" funds.
The House was expected to pass the bill Friday.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., warned that the bill's future in the Senate wasn't bright. "I doubt if there are enough votes in the Senate," he said.
Lawmakers widely agree on the main part of the bill, which adjusts the formula for single-employer payments during the next two years while Congress works on permanent changes to make pension plans fiscally solvent and protect the retirement pay of millions of workers.
Thousands of single-employer pension providers must make quarterly payments by April 15.
Without congressional action, those providers will have to pay more, based on a now-outdated interest rate formula.