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U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12) today delivered the following opening statement at the first meeting of the Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pensions.

“Thank you Mr. Chairman. It’s an honor to be here with you and with Chairman Brown on an issue that is so important. 

“We do have a monumental task ahead of us. I have lived with these men and women for years who worked a lifetime and contributed money to their pension fund. They’re not asking for a hand out. They invested in their pension, thinking they would have a safe and secure retirement, and suddenly the system is not there for them.

“I continue to have grown men cry in my arms because they don’t know how they are going to live – they don’t know how they’re going to eat, what they’re going to give their families.

“So we’ve got to roll up our sleeves and get to work. This select committee was created for a reason. It was created because there will be an economic crisis in this country if we do not act on multiemployer pensions by the end of the year. It’s that simple. We’ve got to make difficult decisions, but I know almost everybody on this committee and we’re not afraid of tough work.

“John taught me, and his father taught him, that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. We need to listen. But by the end of the year, we have a moral responsibility to the working men and women of this country to figure this out and come up with a solution. And none of us are afraid of tough work.

“Thank you Mr. Chairman.”

About the Committee

The Joint Select Committee is chaired by Senators Sherrod Brown (OH) and Orrin Hatch (UT) and made up of 16 members appointed by House and Senate leaders. The members include eight Senators and eight House members, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, including U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo (ID), Lamar Alexander (TN), Joe Manchin (WV), Rob Portman (OH), Heidi Heitkamp (ND) and Tina Smith (MN), and U.S. Reps. Richard E. Neal (MA), Bobby Scott (VA), Virginia Foxx (NC), Vern Buchanan (FL), Phil Roe (TN), David Schweikert (AZ), Donald Norcross (NJ) and Debbie Dingell (MI).

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