The New York Times - September 8, 2004 – Entire Article

House OK's Disclosure of Pension Info

By REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to allow workers and retirees to find out from a federal agency just how severe the shortfalls are in their companies' pension plans.

Responding to growing concerns about underfunded pension plans, such as at bankrupt United Airlines, lawmakers voted 268-148 to allow the agency that insures pensions to disclose to plan participants the funding information that companies now supply to it confidentially.

The amendment was tacked onto a bill providing funding for government education, labor and health programs that is expected to pass the House. It will also have to pass the Senate before becoming law.

The amendment's sponsor, California Democrat Rep. George Miller, argued that there was no reason why the pension insurer, the Pension Benefit  Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), should know how poorly funded some pensions were, while workers and retirees affected by the shortfalls do not.

With thousands of pension funds underfunded, ``there is no reason the information should be kept secret,'' Miller declared. But opponents countered that some of the information was very sensitive, especially for private companies.

The Republican chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, Ohio Rep. John Boehner, said he was working on a comprehensive bill to make sure old-style pensions are funded. He pledged to try to find a way to address Miller's concerns without disclosing sensitive financial data.

U.S. companies with pension underfunding of more than $50 million are required to file special reports to the PBGC, giving details of the shortfalls. While the reports are confidential, the agency is allowed to release the aggregated data to the public.

Details of United's pension plans are known, however, because of proceedings in bankruptcy court.

The PBGC filed a court motion last month in which it said the airline's plans were underfunded by $8.3 billion, and it asked a bankruptcy judge to prevent the airline from halting contributions to the plan. United's threat to scrap the plans has shocked workers and led to calls for pension reform.

Miller, in an interview with Reuters, said the information about underfunding was critical to knowing what reforms were needed to the struggling traditional pension system. ``You need to know how sick the patient is, and how many patients there are, before you can decide on reform,'' he said.

The PBGC said in June that underfunding at companies with severe pension shortfalls had fallen about 9 percent in 2003 to $278.6 billion, but the gap was much worse than five years ago.