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US Plan to Help Retired Pilots Unlikely to Fly
Reuters
July 12, 2006
U.S. lawmakers writing legislation to stabilize pensions are unlikely to embrace a plan boosting the benefits airline pilots get from federal pension insurers, congressional aides said on Wednesday.
Lawmakers discussed the provision at a negotiating session Wednesday on the pension bill, ``but nothing is settled,'' Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, told reporters after the meeting.
But one Republican aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said not a great deal of sympathy was expressed for the pilot proposal at the session. Aides also said congressional staffers had concluded the provision was unlikely to be in the final legislation.
The proposal would make thousands of retired pilots at major U.S. airlines eligible for more benefits than current law allows when their pensions are terminated by carriers and taken over by the federal pension agency, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
It would lower to 60 the age at which pilots can receive the maximum pension benefits allowed by the PBGC -- around $45,000. Currently, pilots must retire at age 60, but they cannot draw maximum pension benefits from the PBGC until they are 65.
Negotiators are trying to write a compromise version of House and Senate legislation to shore up employer-provided pensions. The final bill would affect 44 million Americans with traditional pensions common in older industries such as automotive, airlines and steel.
The pilots' benefit provision was part of the bill approved by the Senate last November, as an amendment sponsored by Sen. Daniel Akaka, a Hawaii Democrat.
Supporters of the provision argued many pilots are in pension plans that have been taken over by the government in recent years -- such as those of United Airlines and US Airways -- and were unfairly treated by the fact that they had to retire at 60 but then wait five years for maximum benefits.
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