The next step in following the Pension
Reform legislation through Congress is the appointment of the members of the
Conference Committee. As of today this has not been done. The
members will definitely include Congressmen Boehner and Miller the Chairman and
Minority Leader from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce,
Congressmen Thomas and Rangel, the Chairman and Minority Leader from the House
Committee on Ways and Means. There will be several others appointed and
the Republicans will be in the majority.
There will be a Senate side of the
Conference Committee also, it will be composed of the Chairman and Minority
leader of the Senate Finance Committee, Senators Grassley and Baucus and the
Chairman and Minority Leader of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions Committee (HELP) Senators Enzi and Kennedy. Several others will
be appointed and the Republicans will be in the majority.
The Conference Committee will meet and
meld the House and Senate versions of the Pension Reform Legislation into one
common bill then this bill will be voted on by both the House and Senate.
The Conference Committee has the power to
add or remove anything they agree to from of either the
passed House and Senate bills.
This is where we come in.
We need to do our best to influence the
Conference Committee to include the provisions of the Miller-Cardin Motion
to Recommit as proposed by Congressman Miller in the House debate. This is essentially the same as the original
Miller-Rangel bill. We can no longer refer to it as the Miller-Rangel
bill because the Miller-Rangel bill was never formally submitted. It was
kept from being submitted by the Republican leadership and by a straight party
line vote. It is now referred to as the “Miller-Cardin Motion to Recommit” and referenced to HR2830. Evidently
Congressman Rangel was not available when the motion to recommit was submitted,
so Congressman Cardin took his place.
One thing that we have going in our favor
is that Congressman Boehner has won his victory; he can now say his HR2830 was
passed by the House and he was victorious. If the bill is changed in
Conference Committee, Congressman Boehner will be able to save face and say he
was able to pass it in the House.
One problem we have is that United
Airlines now knows what we are up to and will lobby to protect their
interests. They spend mega dollars in this effort so we will have to work
hard to neutralize their efforts.
There is no schedule for the Conference
Committee meetings; these will more than likely be announced when the members
are appointed. The House is scheduled to meet this Thursday and it is
possible the committee and their schedule will be announced at that time.
Who are our targets?
There are two groups of Congressmen and
each group must receive their own message.
One group is composed of Democrats, this
is the group that ALL voted friendly to our cause.
The other group is composed of the Republicans,
they ALL voted against our cause. All the Republican
Congressmen voted against the “Miller-Cardin Motion to Recommit”
which would have returned HR2830 to committee with instructions to include all
of the provisions of the original Miller-Rangel substitute bill in a revised
HR2830.
The original Miller-Rangel substitute
bill was designed from the ground up as a bill that would have restored the
pensions at United Airlines. If this bill passed United would have
been required to prove in court under a new set of pension termination guidelines,
specified in the Miller-Rangel substitute, that United could in fact not afford
to keep their pension plans after exhausting all alternatives to
termination. United has never had to prove this in court.
What do we have to do?
If your Congressman is a Democrat, please send him a fax and phone his local and Washington
DC office and leave a message THANKING the Congressman for supporting your
cause to save the pensions at United Airlines and request that he continue to
do everything he can to see that United Airlines is included in the final and
vital pension reform legislation. Only one Democrat voted against this
measure, Congressman James Matheson (D-UT). . You have the easy
part.
If your Congressman is a Republican, you
have your work cut out for you.
Please send your Congressman a fax and phone his local and
The following are talking points
that should be conveyed to the Republicans; choose several that you are most
comfortable with or mention them all:
· It is NOT TOO LATE to save the pensions at United Airlines, there were provisions written into the Motion to
Recommit that would have saved the pensions at United Airlines.
·
State you want his office to contact the
Conference Committee and demand that United Airlines be included in any pension
reform legislation.
§ Ask the Conference Committee to include the United Airline
provisions.
§ Ask the conference Committee to include the anti-dumping
provisions.
· Make it clear that the provisions of the Motion to Recommit saves the pensions at United but will not put
United Airlines out of business.
·
Make it clear that the pension plans of the
other legacy carriers can not possibly be maintained if United is allowed to
dump the pensions on the PBGC.
· The
best way to save the PBGC is to stop the terminations of the pension plans at
the legacy carriers; this will do more than any premium rate increase could
ever do.
· Ask why the Congressman doesn’t want to save your pension?
·
Remind the Congressman that the Republicans
can not win elections if they disenfranchise their constituents over 55 years
old.
· Remind the Congressman that you are watching how they vote
and it will influence the way you and your friends and family vote in the future.
· Remind the Congressman that he asked for your support and
now you are pleading for his support.
· Remind the Republican Congressmen that corporations don’t
vote, constituents
do.
Sample
phone message:
I have repeatedly written Congressman
_____________ asking him to support ANY pension reform legislation that would
save the pensions at United Airlines. I watched the vote on December 15
and I am very disappointed in Congressman _______________’s vote.
The Congressman had an opportunity to
save the pensions at United Airlines, but he destroyed this opportunity with
his vote against the Motion to Recommit HR 2830.
Why doesn’t Congressman ________________
want to save my pension? It is not too late to save the pensions at
United Airlines the language was all there, he only had to vote in favor of the
Motion to recommit. This bill was written to save my pension, not put
United Airlines out of business.
Fax4Word users:
Please use your Fax4Word to fax every
Republican member of the House of Representatives with the letter you composed
to your own Congressman or tailor it for wide distribution.
Attached is a new database of only the
Republican members of the House; save this database as “House Republicans” in
the same folder as you saved the original file named “House Contact
Info”. During the Mail Merge at Step 2 of 6 Select
“House Republicans” database as your source. All other steps are the
same.
This database is roughly one half as big
as the previous database so you will be able to fax about twice the number of
letters per day than with the previous database.
What is next?
Get a good round of letters and phone
calls done this week, then once the
Conference Committee is selected we can focus on both the Congressmen and the
Senators sitting on the Conference Committee.
To our knowledge the date of the new
session after the
This list has had an impact that has
surprised even Congressman Miller’s staff, our strength is in our numbers and
in the participation of every person that gets this letter.
Congressman Miller and his staff have not
given up on us, they still believe we can save the pensions at United Airlines,
but it is going to take participation from each of you. Please join me in
this campaign.
Please find your
Congressman on the chart below to make sure he voted as we suspect: It can be found at:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll634.xml
FINAL
VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 634
(Republicans in roman;
Democrats in italic; Independents underlined)
H R 2830 YEA-AND-NAY 15-Dec-2005 3:42
PM
QUESTION: On Motion to
Recommit with Instructions
BILL TITLE: Pension Protection
Act
---- NOT
VOTING 6 ---
|
Davis (FL) |
Hyde |
|
----
YEAS 200 ---
|
Abercrombie |
Gordon |
Napolitano |
----
NAYS 227 ---
|
Aderholt |
Gillmor |
Nunes |
This
was provided to URPBPA by retired United pilot Jim Hosking, j.hosking@verizon.net