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$80 Billion Pension Bill Is Approved by the Senate
By CARL HULSE and MICHELINE MAYNARD
WASHINGTON, April 8 - The Senate delivered American companies more than $80 billion in pension savings Thursday, sending President Bush legislation that provides additional relief to steel companies and some airlines that had clamored for the help.
…The legislation, a top priority of business groups, saves companies substantial amounts on their pension plans by changing the way their required contributions are calculated. The legislation ends a requirement that contributions be tied to interest rates on 30-year Treasury bonds; it substitutes a rate based on a composite of long-term corporate bonds for 2004 and 2005.
A separate provision grants an estimated $1.6 billion in savings to airlines and steel companies with weak pension plans by allowing them to pay only 20 percent of what they would have to provide under requirements to bolster their pension funds.
Some of the nation's largest airlines were the beneficiaries of the bulk of those savings, with United Airlines the primary winner. All the companies were pressing for the bill to become law before new quarterly payments come due April 15.
The changes would have no effect on the amount of pensions that individual retirees receive.
Opponents of the legislation said they were not contesting the aid to the company pension funds; their complaint was that the Bush administration and Republican Congressional leaders had given short shrift to so-called multiemployer pension plans that are having problems of their own because of stock market losses and a weak economy.
Democrats led by Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts said the union pension plans were largely denied government help at the behest of White House and Republican lawmakers controlling negotiations to reconcile the House and Senate bills. The Senate had previously voted overwhelmingly to extend the relief to multiemployer plans.
