madam speaker , i have the honor of chairing a subcommittee that has jurisdiction over pension law and being an original sponsor of the pension protection act .  as a member of both the committee on education and the workforce and the ways and means committee , we have been working for the last 2 years to get a pension bill to the house floor , and i am proud to rise in strong support of the bill .  the pension protection act is good and it is tough .  our bill makes companies put their money behind their promises and keep employees well informed on the health of their pension plans .  while this bill is tough , it does not go overboard with more red tape that has almost killed traditional pension plans .  even with all the red tape that currently binds up these pension plans , there still are some loopholes in current law that have allowed companies to run away from their responsibilities and dump pension promises onto the pension benefit guaranty corporation .  the pbgc says it is $ 23 billion in the hole , and they say that , with expected terminations , they are close to $ 28 billion .  our bill will tighten up pension laws so that companies making promises to employees for their retirement security actually put the money behind their promises .  it is a shame our pension laws have allowed those most directly affected , workers and retirees , to be left unaware that there may be little money behind the promises of a secure retirement .  united airlines ' pilots ' pension plan was only 30 percent funded when it was dumped on the government .  those pilots and their families did not know how bad the situation was , and they are the ones that are now trying to figure out how to live on one-third of what they had planned to receive .  our bill requires a company to tell their employees if the pension plan is less than 80 percent funded .  employees will now push their bosses to put money into the plans to match the promises being made .  this is a really important reform and should not be minimized .  also , not to be underestimated is a provision that will allow for a phased retirement of older workers .  the provision would allow people to continue working , but also collect their employer-based pension after the age of 62 .  current rules prohibit working for the same employer while also collecting a pension today .  this prohibition simply forces many people to change jobs or work for a competitor or stop working altogether .  my constituents have been really happy to hear about this additional way to step lightly into retirement .  the bill also helps to modernize the pension law on cash balance pension plans .  this type of pension plan represents the best chance we have at maintaining defined benefit plans in the future .  cash balance plans are a better fit than traditional plans with today 's mobile workforce where employees generally do not stay with one employer for their entire career .  the bill clarifies that in the future these plans are not age discriminatory .  we need to provide this certainty .  in fact , we should go further in providing certainty for plans regardless of when they were created , but because of litigation we can not .  we need to get this bill through the house and on to conference with the senate and quickly enacted early next year .  the number of traditional pension plans has been declining rapidly .  the companies dropping these plans are in two groups .  the first group is those that do not put their money behind their pension promises and turn their liabilities over to the government .  we have seen that in the steel and airline industries .  the second group is companies that are just sick of the red tape and uncertainty of our laws so they decide to stop offering plans altogether , like verizon announced last week .  in the many hearings on pension issues we have heard over and over again that companies need predictability and stability in their plans .  we need to get this bill enacted so that companies put their money behind their promises so they can plan with certainty in the long term .  support this bill .  