Dear Legislator,

On behalf of 10 million American retirees and their families participating in multiemployer pension plans, members of the National United Committee to Protect Pensions (NUCPP) urge you to cosponsor and support the Butch Lewis Act of 2017, S 2174 and H.R. 4444. This legislation will save the pensions we worked hard our entire lives to build, protecting our families and communities from the financial devastation that will result if our pension plans are allowed to fail, and will accomplish this goal without requiring a “bailout” from the federal government.

The Butch Lewis Act of 2017, S. 2147 and H.R. 4444 provides a creative solution to the multiemployer pension crisis that is a win-win for retirees, employers, employees, our communities and the federal government. We urge you to work for its passage this year!

When Congress passed the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA), it triggered a chain of events that allowed multiemployer plan trustees, for the first time, to slash our earned benefits by as much as 72 percent as a misguided way to shore up the funding for our plans. This unfair and cruel law launched a three-year struggle filled with physical and mental anguish for the hundreds of thousands of us who relied on multiemployer pension plans to fund our retirement. We and our families have suffered from unexpected financial pressures, stress-induced illnesses, divorces, and even suicides and deaths, all as a result of the looming loss of the retirement income we had worked so hard to secure. We have been held hostage long enough!

The Butch Lewis Act of 2017, S. 2147 and H.R. 4444 will restore solvency to our pension plans and financial security to our families by allowing pension plans to borrow the money they need to remain solvent and continue providing retirement security for retirees and workers for decades to come. The money would come from the sale of Treasury-issued bonds to financial institutions. The bill puts safeguards in place to prevent plans from borrowing more than they can pay back, or for using borrowed funds to make risky investments, helping them get back on solid footing. Any remaining gap in needed funds would be provided by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

As a reminder, PBGC is an agency of the federal government and insures multiemployer pension plans. If the Butch Lewis Act of 2017 is not passed, PBGC will go insolvent within seven years and will require a massive Goverment bailout.

THE BUTCH LEWIS ACT OF 2017 IS NOT A BAILOUT, IT WON'T TOUCH TAXPAYERS AND IT WON'T ADD TO THE NATIONAL DEBT. IT WILL PREVENT THE INSOLVENCY OF PBGC AND THE NEED FOR A MASSIVE GOVERNMENT BAILOUT.

Our pension benefits are not a handout from the government. We worked hard for them during our working years, and paid for them by giving up pay raises and other benefits – all because we believed working hard and saving for retirement was the right way to be good citizens. Our pensions are modest – our average benefits are under $1,000/month. But this money is critical to us and our families, and the only income other than Social Security most of us receive. Today our pensions help drive our communities’ economies as we spend billions on local, state and federal taxes, housing, food, clothing, health care and other basic necessities, not just for ourselves, but often for our families as well. We helped build and defend this country and we are an asset to be invested in.

This is not a partisan issue – we are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. We are your constituents, and when you asked for our votes, you promised you would represent us in the U.S. Senate. Now is the time for you to live up to your promises – broken promises mean broken lives. We urge you to cosponsor the Butch Lewis Act of 2017, S. 2147 and H.R. 4444 and to push for its enactment this year! Saving our pensions is the right thing to do, and now is the right time to do it. We expect nothing less.

Respectfully,

Members of National United Committee to Protect Pensions