The PBGC is expected to have a $87 billion deficit over the next decade, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate announced today — $16 billion higher than the CBO's $71 billion estimate just three months ago.
The increase, combined with the bankruptcy filings of Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. on Wednesday, lend a new urgency to the need to prevent bankrupt companies from unloading their underfunded pension plans on the PBGC, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the ranking minority member on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said today.
Mr. Miller once again called on Congress to pass legislation preventing the PBGC from taking on terminated plans for at least six months. In June, Republicans on the House Education and the Workforce Committee rejected an amendment introduced by Mr. Miller for a six-month moratorium on underfunded plan terminations.
The new estimate for the PBGC deficit "makes it look like the agency's finances are in a free fall," he said. "This situation will only worsen if Congress does not act to turn the PBGC from a dumping ground to a guarantor of last resort for terminated pension plans."
