Committee to Pursue Policy Objectives for Multiemployer Plans

At its annual meeting, the Board of Directors of the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP) reaffirmed its commitment to pursue three significant pension policy objectives in 2017.

The committee will pursue enactment of the Composite Plan legislation that provides plan sponsors with the legal framework for a new voluntary pension plan design that fully funds the legacy defined benefit plan while creating a new type of plan going forward that incorporates the best features of both defined benefit and defined contribution plans. NCCMP has proposed a composite plan, viewed as shared-risk design that could be used if enacted. It is a concept of shared risk between the plan, participants and employer members.

The NCCMP is committed to ensuring that the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) is a real tool for Trustees to restore troubled plans to solvency and protect beneficiaries from the even larger benefit reductions that they will see when their plan becomes insolvent and subject to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) guaranty. Under the MPRA, troubled multiemployer plans can apply for a suspension or reduction in benefits to improve plan solvency.

The committee says it will continue to oppose PBGC premium increases. “While the PBGC must be a credible insurer that can honor its commitments, this must be accomplished in a way that does not require catastrophic premium increases that will destroy the viability of the multiemployer system. Congress passed MPRA to provide Trustees with the self-help tools needed to restore solvency to multiemployer pension plans, and which would also serve to remove these plans from the PBGC’s net deficit numbers. Faithfully implemented, MPRA’s tools would significantly reduce the need for additional PBGC premiums. Until this law is allowed to achieve its intended purposes, we will continue to oppose PBGC premium increases in any form,” the NCCMP says.

“The NCCMP remains committed to our ongoing efforts to preserve and strengthen multiemployer plans for the benefit of our participants and beneficiaries, as well as the success of the job creating employers of America,” says Sean McGarvey, Chairman of NCCMP.  “These efforts are critical to the financial health of pension plans, participants and beneficiaries, employers, the U.S. Government, state and local governments, and the U.S. economy.”