March 7, 2019

SWACCA’s efforts to authorize composite plans continued at today’s House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing entitled: “The Cost of Inaction: Why Congress Must Address the Multiemployer Pension Crisis”.  This hearing was intended to illustrate why Congress must act quickly to save the multiemployer pension system. SWACCA urged members and witnesses at the hearing to raise composite plans as part of any solution to the crisis facing the multiemployer system.  Three members of Congress and a witness from the U.S. Chamber of Congress raised the issue at today’s hearing.

For today’s hearing, SWACCA also joined with other unionized construction contractor associations and the Associated General Contractors in a joint letter that Subcommittee Chairwoman Frederica Wilson (D-FL) entered into the hearing record.  The letter explains the important role composite plans can play in ensuring the future stability of the multiemployer pension system. In the letter, SWACCA and the other signatories stressed that: 

"Composite plans must be a part of multiemployer pension reform. . . . The composite plan concept incorporates the best features of defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans. Composite plans offer voluntary options to share risks, provide funding stability, provide lifetime income to participants, and limit employer obligations to negotiated contributions only, at no cost to the taxpayer.”

Read the full letter here.

© 2024 Signatory Wall and Ceiling Contractors Alliance (SWACCA). All rights reserved.