The director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. told a congressional panel on Wednesday that pension premiums paid into his organization had been "too low for too long" to insure the nation's pension plan, which he said was a major factor in the plans' funding crisis, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday. However, Thomas Reeder said that the crisis was so severe that raising the premiums for multi-employer plans would not solve the problem and may even make it worse. "I think the multi-employer program has premiums that have been too low for too long.... I realize that raising them is harder, but I don't think they reflect the economic reality of the obligations we have," Reeder told the House Education and the Workforce Committee on Wednesday. The Trump administration has proposed adding a variable rate premium on unfunded benefits and an exit premium on companies that withdraw from the plans. It estimates that this would add $16 billion to the PBGC's program over the next decade. It is still far short of what would be needed to cover the obligations, Reeder conceded, but would buy time to reach a fuller solution.
