Trip Report – NRLN
Conference Washington D.C. 2010
Attendees from the NCRO:
Chuck Austin – President,
Mike Kane - Vice President
Chris Dyrda - Vice President
Stan Hurst - Director
Rich Brown - Insurance Committee
Dates:
January 11, 2010 through January 13,2010
Purpose:
The purpose of the trip was to attend the NRLN Board
Meeting, attend the
NRLN conference, and visit members of
Congress, with the NRLN agenda.
Report:
NCRO
attendees flew into Baltimore, taking buses and taxis
where feasible to save cost. The hotel and travel
expenses were paid by NCRO.
On the
afternoon of the 11th the NRLN held it’s
annual Board Meeting. New Board members, Chris Dyrda
from the NCRO and John Christie from GMRA, the GM
Retirees Organization were welcomed. NRLN’s budget was
approved.
Special projects to create white papers, which will be
taken to congress to propose legislation to protect
pensions in bankruptcy and in mergers and acquisitions
by foreign companies, were approved.
Bob
Foresta, NRLN Vice President, presented the Legislative
agenda. Ed Beltrum, NRLN Vice President, reported a 38%
growth in grass root members. Over one million CapWiz
emails were sent in 2009. Bob, Martina, NRLN Vice
President, reported grass root coverage of 96% of states
and 56% coverage of congressional districts by members.
He appealed for more participation. Daniel Lindblad
reported that NRLN sponsored insurance plans are in
place for health care, life, annuity and casualty plans.
The
conference was held on the 12th from 9:00
a.m. until approximately 5:00 p.m. with reception and
dinner afterward.
The
agenda and notes:
Opening & Review of 2009 - Challenge for
2010 – Bill Kadereit
Bill
appealed for individual memberships in the NRLN. Much
of the operating funds come from individual
memberships. NRLN now has 32 sponsoring
organizations.
Attendees to the conference included members from:
NCRO, National Chrysler Retirement
Organization
GMRA, General Motors Retiree Association
DP-3, Delta Pilots
ACER, AT&T
LRO, Lucent Retirees Organization
DEAR, Detroit Edison
AUSWR, Southwest Retirees
Quest
AASBC, SBC retirees
EKRA, Kodak retirees
ARR
FRO
Telco
The
conference notes are posted on the NRLN website:
http://www.nrln.org/Newsletters/NRLN%20FOCUS%20SPRING%202010%20V1.pdf
Introduction of Guests and Panels
– Marta Bascom &
Michael Calabrese
Marta
Bascom is the Executive Director of the NRLN and it’s
chief lobbyist. Michael Calabrese is NRLN’s Legal
Counsel and white paper consultant.
Department
of Labor - Hillary Duke and Florence Novalino
The
Department of Labor speakers were from the office of
Employee Benefits Security Administration, EBSA. This
agency oversees and protects health and defined pension
plans. Currently they oversee 700,000 pension plan, and
2,800,000 health plans for 150 million Americans with
assets of $7 trillion. In 2008 assets in defined
pension plans fell by 28% because of the bad economy.
More information is available on DOL.gov/EBSA
Diane Oakley,
from the legislative staff of Representative Earl
Pomeroy of North Dakota.
Currently the Pomeroy bill, HR 3936 is
in process, which would preserve benefits and promote
jobs by allowing employers pension-funding relief. It
would defer funding requirements up to 9 years.
However, NRLN is working to include in the Bill the
prevention of using pension assets for early buyouts and
prevent raiding by executive pension plans.
PBGC - Michael
Rae and Amy Wiener
In
2009 the PBGC took over 150 terminated pension plans, 40
large plans. This is 200,000 new participants. Delphi
plans were included in those with 20,000 salaried
participants. The PBGC now pays out benefits to 700,000
pensioners. Their liabilities exceed their assets by
$22 billion.
The participants tried to understand
some of the rules that the PBGC uses to determine
benefits. NRLN is currently working on a white paper to
make recommendations for rule changes and enforcement
authority.
IOn the Hill
-
2009 in Perspective and What to expect in 2010 – Marta
and Michael
Much of the discussion centered on what
is in the Health Care Bill. Congress is consumed by
activities on this. Once the health care legislation is
resolved pensions and benefits will get more attention.
2010
Legislative Agenda –
Overview and Major Initiatives
Summaries - Bob Foresta
Summary of NRLN 2010 Legislative Agenda
2010 TOP INITIATIVES
PENSION ASSET PROTECTION (PAP):
The NRLN advocates legislation that stops corporations
from taking pension assets from defined pension plan
trusts to pay for lump sum severance and early
retirement incentives. The NRLN advocates that pension
funds not be used to pay executive non-qualified
pensions and other deferred compensation. The NRLN
advocates that pension plan assets should not be
transferred to or be taken over by third party financial
or other institutions.
PBGC REFORM:
The NRLN advocates that the Pension Benefits Guaranty
Corporation must be regulated to ensure equitable
calculations of benefit payments earned by retirees.
BANKRUPTCY REFORM:
The NRLN advocates that bankruptcy reform is needed to
place retirees' pensions and benefits on a list of
obligations that companies can't shed. Retirees often
lose pension, health care, and other benefits and,
unlike secured creditors, rarely have the ability to
recover losses.
PROTECTION AND
ENHANCEMENT OF RETIREE HEALTH CARE BENEFITS:MAINTENANCE
OF COST PAYMENT: The NRLN
advocates a Maintenance of Cost† Payment (MCP) proposal
that would establish a fixed monthly payment to retirees
equivalent to the value an employer provided prior to
the reduction or cancellation of retirement health care,
prescription drugs, life insurance, long-term care or
other benefits. Companies would be entitled to tax
credits as an offset to MCP payments.
MEDICARE BUY-IN FOR AGES 55-64:
The NRLN advocates that adults age 55 to 64 be allowed
to buy Medicare coverage at a cost that does not burden
the Medicare system. Access could be limited to
individuals without access to an employer-sponsored or
other group health plan that is actuarially equivalent
or superior to Medicare.
INCLUSION OF CATASTROPHIC COVERAGE IN
MEDICARE: The NRLN advocates
that Congress should extend protection against
catastrophic medical costs to the Medicare population by
setting a reasonable maximum limit on out-of-pocket
costs.
PROTECT RETIREES IN MERGERS &
ACQUISITIONS: The NRLN
advocates law that clarifies what a parent foreign
owner's pension plan obligations are to abide by ERISA
should its U.S. subsidiary be spun off or dissolved.
Clarification must include situations where foreign
corporations that own U.S. subsidiaries are also
acquired by a third party, foreign-owned corporation.
REDUCE THE COST OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS:
The NRLN advocates the reduction of prescription drug
costs for Americans through passage of legislation that:
(1) Enables re-importation and importation of safe
prescription drugs approved by the FDA; (2) Enables
Medicare to develop formularies and take competitive
bids for prescription drugs; (3) Staffs and funds the
FDA to reduce the generic drug approval backlog; (4)
Prevents drug companies from colluding to control
pricing or subvert free market practices.
PROTECT MEDICARE:
The NRLN advocates that Congress must guard against
reductions in Medicare expenditures that negatively
impact the care that retirees receive from doctors,
hospitals and other health care services.PROTECT
SOCIAL SECURITY:† The NRLN
advocates legislation to make Social Security
financially sound without reducing current and future
retiree benefits.
Bankruptcy and PBGC Reform
- Will Buergey, Michael and Marta
40% to 45% of Delta Pilot pensions were
lost when the PBGC took over those pensions. The
attendees agreed to delve into the rule making authority
and interpretation of pension payouts.
HCAC - MCP, Catastrophic, under age 65
buy-in; Michael and Marta
Much of the emphasis of NRLN’s lobbying
activity is to keep congress aware of the need to
maintain COBRA coverage, healthcare tax credits and
maintenance of cost payments by companies. Early
retirees are hit especially hard by loss of health care.
NPAC – PAP and M&A / Foreign Ownership:
Frank Minter, Michael and Marta
Concern was expressed and action called
out to give the PBGC and the Department of Labor more
authority to enforce funding and oversight of pension
and health care plans assumed by foreign acquisitions.
Right now the PBGC has little leverage with foreign
corporations. Funding is being sought for a white paper
with recommendations.
Grassroots Planning and Staffing
– Bob Martina
Capwiz Goals, Issues and Plans and Media
and Administration - Ed
Beltram
Lobby Day
Orientation – Joe Dombrowski, Marta Bascom, Bob Foresta
The 13th
was spent going to congressional offices.
Here attendees met
with Harold Chase from Senator Carl Levin’s office.
Here Mike Kane,
Chris Dyrda and Chuck Austin met with Representative
Gary Peters, second from the right.
Meetings were also held
with the legislative aids from the offices of Senator
Debbie
Stabenaw, Congressman Mike Rogers, and
Congressman Bert Stupak
Mike Kane, Rich Brown and Chris Dyrda
attended a special meeting with the legislative aids
from the Senate Judiciary Committee, the special
bankruptcy sub-committee. We made these aids aware of
how little representation salaried retirees get in
bankruptcy. Often bankruptcy judges refuse to appoint
committee representation because of the Reservation of
Rights clause in retirement packages. Retirees, we
stated, can’t even get a list of retirees, nor are they
given time to fund and seek legal counsel.
Follow up meetings will be planned.
The NCRO
September 2009 Washington Trip
