The Senate Finance Committee called for pension funding stabilization, or smoothing, as part of a funding package for the Highway Trust Fund approved Thursday.
The House Ways and Means Committee approved its own proposal Thursday that extends corporate pension contribution relief passed in the 2012 MAP-21 highway bill for five more years. The Senate Finance Committee version extends it for three years.
Both bills face further debate over the projected long-term savings of the pension measures, as well as the broader fate of the Highway Trust Fund, which is due to run out of money Aug. 1.
The reduced pension funding contributions resulting from the change in the House proposal would bring in an estimated total of $6.4 billion in tax revenue, according to a Joint Committee on Taxation estimate of the committee's proposal. The Senate version would raise an estimated $2.7 billion over 10 years.
