let me thank my colleague and my friend and classmate , mr. camp , for yielding me time , and thank all of my colleagues for what i think has been a very healthy debate today about how we strengthen america 's pension system . 
we have heard members argue that the bill that we are bringing before us is too difficult , that we will force companies out of pension plans and leave their employees hanging ; while others have argued that the rules are not tough enough , and we are keeping the door open to irresponsible practices . 
i truly do believe that we have a bill that is balanced , that will not push employers who have these plans out of the system and will protect american workers who have been promised these benefits . 
if we do not act , we know exactly what is going to happen : millions and millions more americans are going to lose an opportunity for a defined benefit pension plan , and millions of americans who already have one are going to be at risk that they will not have their plan . 
so congress must act . 
not only did we deal with single-employer pension plans , but we have not talked much about multiple-employer pension plans that you find traditionally in the trucking industry , the food industry and others . 
and while they have not been talked about much today in this debate and the administration did not propose changes , there are serious changes to the multi-employer pension system in this plan that will help strengthen that system . 
those plans , by and large , are healthier than single-employer plans , and we have labor and management on both sides in the multi-employer sector come together to put rules in place so that their plans can never get into a very weakly funded position . 
i am glad they are in the bill . 
lastly , let me point out that there are large numbers of groups supporting this bill . 
every major labor organization , with the exception of several , is supporting this bill . 
many in the management sector in every large business organization is supporting this bill . 
why would all of the labor organizations and the business organizations all be on board in support of this bill ? 
because they think it is balanced . 
they think it is the right thing to do , and they know that congress needs to act . 
is everything perfect in the bill ? 
no . 
as the gentleman pointed out , we have got airline relief that we will probably be talking about again soon . 
our commitment is to deal with this in conference . 
my colleague from ohio talked about the need to go further on cash balance language . 
i certainly agree with her . 
there are 7 million americans who have cash balance plans or other types of hybrid plans . 
we need to provide legal certainty for those who have converted to a cash balance plan so that we do not put in jeopardy the 7 million americans counting on benefits from those plans . 
we have a good bill . 
i would urge my colleagues to support it . 
