Congress has cleared pension legislation that would provide temporary relief for single-employer and multi-employer pension funds, as well as individual retirees, who have seen their funds decline because of the downturn in the financial markets.
Final congressional approval came Dec. 11 when the Senate passed the measure by unanimous consent. The House had approved the bill the previous day. Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Dept., said in a letter to state and local BCTD leaders that the legislation "would provide funding relief for the vast majority of building trades' multiemployer plans...which, like most pension plans, have been devastated by the decline in the stock markets."