Manchin Announces Organizing Meeting of Joint Select Committee on Pensions

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), member of the Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pensions Plans, today announced the first meeting of the full committee this Wednesday, March 14, 2018, at 10 a.m. During the organizational meeting, members will adopt committee rules and make opening statements. Wednesday’s meeting is the first in a series of meetings and hearings that the Joint Select Committee will hold as it works toward a bipartisan solution to the multiemployer pension plan crisis that is threatening almost 86,000 coal miners nationwide, including over 26,000 in West Virginia.

Senator Manchin is joined on the joint committee by: U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Rob Portman (R-OH), Heidi Heitkamp (D-NC) and Tina Smith (D-MN), and U.S. Reps. Richard E. Neal (D-MA), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Phil Roe (R-TN), David Schweikert (R-AZ), Donald Norcross (D-NJ) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI).

To watch the committee meeting live, click here.

About the Committee

The Joint Select Committee was created as part of the overall budget compromise that passed in February. The committee is instructed to report a bill by the last week of November, and will be required to hold at least five public meetings and 3 hearings so that members of Congress can hear directly from retirees, workers and businesses affected by the pension crisis. The solution that the committee produces will be guaranteed an expedited vote in the Senate without amendments.

Details on the Joint-Select Committee to Solve the Pensions Crisis:

• The committee will be made up of 16 members to be appointed by House and Senate leaders.
• The members will include eight Senators and eight House members, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.
• The committee has instructions to report a bill to solve the pension crisis by the final week of November.
• If at least five members from each party agree on a compromise, the solution the committee produces will be guaranteed an expedited vote on the Senate floor with no amendments.
• The committee will be required to hold at least five public meetings, including the option of field hearings outside of D.C. for the committee to hear directly from retirees, workers and businesses affected by the pension crisis.

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