Business Insurance

Pension bill seen unlikely in House this year

December 06 16:43:00, 2005, Business Insurance

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The full U.S. House of Representatives will not likely vote this year on legislation to shore up traditional pensions unless some Democrats back it, the acting majority leader, Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Tuesday.

"We're going to have to have some Democrats step forward," Rep. Blunt told reporters in a briefing. "If it does happen, I think we could bring a pension bill to the floor, and if it doesn't, we'll do that when we get back next year."

Rep. Blunt said he thought there was "really no likelihood" the bill would be voted on this year.

The Senate earlier this month approved legislation aimed at reducing underfunding in "defined benefit" pension plans, which have a fixed payout at retirement. But the House version of the legislation has yet to be brought to a vote.

A senior House Democrat said separately that party leaders would probably urge their members to oppose the bill.

"We're going to whip, probably, against the pension bill," House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters.

The House bill's sponsors, Republicans John Boehner of Ohio and Bill Thomas of California, would like a vote as soon as possible.

Republicans control a clear majority of 230 of the 435 seats in the House, but it's far from certain that they would all support the legislation as written.

Employers struggling with pension costs and worried about proposed new funding requirements have sent mixed messages about the legislation. The Republican Bush administration is unhappy with both the House and Senate versions, saying they don't help the near-term financial situation of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. that insures pensions.

Meanwhile, some labor groups, a traditional constituency of Democrats, have criticized the legislation. The United Auto Workers says the House bill could freeze pension benefits of the Big Three U.S. automakersa—General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group.

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