MCAA Members Meet with House Ways and Means Committee Chair on Pension Reform

MCAA members met with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) on pension reform on April 21, pressing for positive action by Congress that would allow plan trustees the option to consider adopting new pension plan designs, if appropriate for their area.

Meeting with Chairman Brady in Washington, DC, were MCAA members Barry Moore, President of Brandt Engineering (Dallas, TX), Jim Letsos, President/CEO of Letsos Company (Houston, TX), and MCA of Texas Executive Director Glenn Rex. They outlined the ways that the Solutions Not Bailouts legislative proposal would allow plan trustees to consider new options for multiemployer defined benefit plans that would reinvigorate the plan and workforce demographics, and improve long-term sustainability and MCAA member competitiveness and market share.

The new plan design proposal was pulled back from the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Plan Reform Act (MPRA) that passed in December 2014 with a promise for positive action in the next year, which fell short due to leadership changes in the House.

With the House leadership issues settled, MCAA and the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP) are pressing again for Congressional action before this year’s session ends. And, pension reform will lead the agenda for the MCAA/Quality Construction Alliance National Issues Conference (May 10-12, Washington, DC). Former California Representative George Miller will moderate the pension reform panel discussion.