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United's pension bailout irks Congress

WASHINGTON, June 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. House of Representatives wants to punish the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. if it picks up United Airlines retirement obligations.

The PBGC, a federal guarantor of single-employer define-benefit pension plans, cut a deal in April - with bankruptcy court approval -- to takeover four of the carrier's pension plans, underfunded by $9.8 billion. The agency is now responsible for $6.6 billion of those pension obligations.

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But by a 219-185 vote, the House adopted an amendment to a fiscal 2006 spending bill that blocks the PBGC from getting any appropriated funds in the 2006 fiscal year if it follows through on its United plans, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The move, sponsored Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., is not expected to be accepted by the Senate and so is largely symbolic.

At the same time, legislation is moving through the House to improve pension-plan funding and raise the premiums paid by companies to help reduce the PBGC's current $23.3 billion deficit.

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