Press Releases
Currently showing results related to Retirement and Pensions
Labor Secretary Perez Testifies Before House Committee
03.18.15 WASHINGTON - The Honorable Thomas E. Perez, the U.S. Secretary of Labor, appeared before the full Committee on Education and the Workforce today to testify on the Department's Fiscal Year 2016 budget. "The United States has emerged from the depths of the great recession, and job creation has resumed at a consistent pace," said Ranking Member Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-VA). "The choice before us now is whether we will choose to pursue prosperity economics or austerity economics. What will ne… Continue Reading
Scott Lauds President's New Proposal to Strengthen Retirement Security
02.23.15 WASHINGTON--Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-VA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, released the following statement today after President Barack Obama announced that the Department of Labor will lay out new standards to ensure retirement advisors act in the best interest of their clients when giving investment advice: "Today's announcement by the President is another critical step toward improving every American family's retireme… Continue Reading
House Passes Bipartisan Multiemployer Pension Reform
12.11.14 WASHINGTON—After a bipartisan agreement to reform the multiemployer pension plan system and protect millions of workers from financial catastrophe was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives today, Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) and Senior Democratic Member George Miller (D-Calif.) issued the following joint statement: “Tonight a bipartisan Congress put workers and businesses one step closer toward having the tools they need to come together and save … Continue Reading
Committee Leaders Issue Joint Statement in Response to PBGC Financial Report
06.30.14 WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN), Education and the Workforce Committee Senior Democrat George Miller (D-CA), Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Chairman Phil Roe (R-TN) and Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Senior Democrat John Tierney (D-MA) issued the following joint statement after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) released its latest financial projections report: The latest PBGC repo… Continue Reading
Labor Dept. Protecting Americans’ Economic Security, But Congress Must Support Workers and Raise Minimum Wage, Committee Learns
03.26.14 WASHINGTON-While U.S. Department of Labor initiatives will help increase working families' income and put Americans back to work, Republicans in Congress continue to hold up legislative proposals to strengthen the economy, members learned at a hearing with Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez today. "The core principle [behind the Labor Department's budget] is as American as they come: the notion that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should have the opportunity to succeed," said Perez, wh… Continue Reading
Miller Releases GAO Report Assessing Alternatives to Improve Retirement Spend-Down Options
12.15.13 WASHINGTON—Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, released the following statement regarding today’s publication of a GAO report that examines strategies to help American workers make sound financial decisions throughout retirement. Recent research has found that Americans are primarily saving for retirement through 401(k) plans, but 35 percent of all Americans—including 70 percent of lower-income households—may outlive their retirement… Continue Reading
Bill to Restore Equity in Airline Pilot Pension Benefits Introduced
07.23.13 WASHINGTON - Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the senior Democratic member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, joined a bipartisan group of House members to introduce legislation on Thursday to ensure that airline pilots with pensions administered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PGBC) are not treated unfairly because of federal aviation requirements. The Airline Pilot Pension Fairness Act, H.R. 2697, would clarify that airline pilots forced to retire at age 60 because of a … Continue Reading
Congress Must Work to Stabilize Multiemployer Retirement Plans to Protect Beneficiaries & Taxpayers, House Panel Learns
06.12.13 WASHINGTON - Congress will need to work together to fix the nation's multiemployer retirement pension system in order to ensure that the retirement benefits workers earned will be there when they need and expect them, a House retirement subcommittee learned today. An association of multiemployer pension plans represented by businesses and unions that operate these plans testified about their recent legislative proposals for Congress to consider. "I think there is broad consensus that we want to… Continue Reading
GAO Uncovers Troubling Practices Carried Out by Financial Firms That Drain Americans’ 401(k) Retirement Savings in Report
04.03.13 WASHINGTON, D.C. - America’s workers are often presented with false and misleading information regarding fees and their options on what to do with their 401(k) assets when they leave an employer, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation released today by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). Following the release of the report, Miller, Harkin, and Nelson called on the Departments of Labor (DOL) and Treasury to act on GAO’s recom… Continue Reading
Committee Leaders Respond to Reports on Multiemployer Pension System
01.29.13 WASHINGTON, D.C. - Bipartisan leaders on the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee responded today to three reports on the nation's multiemployer pension system. The reports provide a broad examination of the challenges facing the pension system responsible for providing retirement benefits to more than 10 million individuals. Chairman John Kline (R-MN): "Anyone who denies the reality of the growing pension crisis is ignoring the facts. A weak pension system would not onl… Continue Reading
GAO: Federal Workers Disabled in the Line of Duty Face Significant Cuts to Important Benefits Under Pending Proposals
11.26.12 WASHINGTON - Proposals by the Department of Labor and approved by the U.S. Senate as part of a postal reform bill (S. 1789) would reduce wage replacement benefits for work-related injuries far below what workers would have received had they been able to work a full career, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in two reports released today. These provisions include reducing workers’ compensation at retirement age from 75 percent to 50 percent of the worker’s wages, lowering benefits … Continue Reading
Markey, Miller Press Labor Dept. on Risky Pension Investments
10.18.12 WASHINGTON (October 18, 2012) - Continuing their recent examination of whether commodity index fund investments may run afoul of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and George Miller (D-Calif.) again wrote to the Department of Labor today expressing concern that the agency does not know the degree to which pensions plans are invested in potentially risky commodity index funds. Commodity index funds are financial products that allow customers to purc… Continue Reading
Senior House Democrats Call for Closing of “Romney” IRA Tax Loophole
09.27.12 WASHINGTON—Members of Congress are calling on Congress’s tax-writing committees to close loopholes that may allow for the abuse of tax-preferred retirement accounts for tax evasion purposes. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-M.D.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, today called upon the leadership of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to consider efforts t… Continue Reading
Miller Statement on PBGC’s Revaluation of United Airlines Pension Plans
08.15.12 WASHINGTON - Rep. George Miller (D- Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Education the Workforce Committee, released the following statement today after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced that beginning today and over the next few weeks, the PBGC will be notifying United Airlines pension plan participants and beneficiaries whether there will be any changes to their pension benefits as the result of corrections made to plan asset valuations. “The PBGC’s new rework … Continue Reading
GAO: Employers Don’t Understand All the Fees in the 401(k) Plans they Sponsor
05.23.12 WASHINGTON - A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released today by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) shows that many employers GAO surveyed do not understand or were unable to identify the 401(k) fees that they and their employees pay. Without the ability to determine the fees charged to both employers that sponsor 401(k) plans and the workers who participate in them, employers and employees may be paying much higher costs than they are aware of, resulting in reduced retirem… Continue Reading
GAO: Workers in Other Countries Better Protected from High Retirement Fund Fees
04.23.12 WASHINGTON - The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, found that other countries with defined contribution (DC) retirement systems better protect workers’ savings from high or excessive fees and require more disclosure on the fees accountholders do pay when compared with the United States. More than 51 million American workers actively participate in a 401(k) defined contribution plan, totaling about $3 trillion of assets. "U.S. participants typically do… Continue Reading
Video: Protect American Airline workers, retirees and taxpayers, Miller says at pension hearing today
02.02.12 WASHINGTON - At a hearing today with PBGC Director Joshua Gotbaum, Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, urged the agency to protect American Airline workers, retirees and taxpayers. Yesterday, American Airlines announced that it intended to terminate the company’s pension plans. This would be the largest pension termination in history. Miller said that the PBGC should learn from its mistakes in the United Airlines bankruptcy in 200… Continue Reading
Miller asks pension agency to protect American Airline retirees, employees and U.S. taxpayers
02.01.12 WASHINGTON - Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, asked the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation today to avoid a potential termination of American Airlines' pension plan that may leave taxpayers on the hook and threaten the retirement security of thousands of current and future American Airline retirees. "Termination should only be a last resort and not part of any business strategy to exploit the bankruptcy process and dump pen… Continue Reading
Miller: Audit Raises Troubling Questions about Whether Americans are Receiving Accurate Benefits from Federal Agency
11.16.11 WASHINGTON - Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, issued the following statement after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Inspector General released an audit that uncovered a number of serious internal control weaknesses within the agency, resulting in “errors in valuation of plan assets” and “errors in benefit calculations.”“The independent auditor’s report raises deeply troubling questions about whether retirees receiving… Continue Reading
Harkin, Miller Statement on DOL Fiduciary Regulation
09.19.11 WASHINGTON - Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), and Representative George Miller (CA-7), ranking member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, today issued the following statement after the Department of Labor announced that it will be reproposing its rule clarifying who is a fiduciary with respect to retirement plans: "Today, the Department of Labor announced it would be taking further steps to make sure that i… Continue Reading