WASHINGTON – Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted to favorably report the nomination of Janet Dhillon to serve as the Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation by a vote of 12-11.
Click here to watch the full executive session.
Before the vote, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks in support of the nomination. Cassidy’s speech as prepared for delivery can be found below:
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will please come to order.
If confirmed as the Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), Ms. Dhillon will be charged with leading an agency that desperately needs reform.
Under the Biden administration, PBGC was plagued by severe operational issues; costing taxpayers and putting Americans’ retirement plans at alarming levels of underfunding.
PBGC mismanaged the rollout of Democrats’ 2021 pension bailout; failing to implement important safeguards that ensured plans’ applications did not include dead participants. In the most egregious case, the agency overpaid the Central States Pension Fund by $127 million after the fund included 3,479 dead participants in their bailout request. The Teamsters, who manage this fund, returned this money to the American people.
Because of HELP Committee Republican oversight over PBGC last Congress, $375 million total taxpayer dollars were prevented from being wrongfully paid to pension funds. This is a win for taxpayers, but should have never happened in the first place.
PBGC also failed to provide timely technical assistance to pension plans experiencing significant financial troubles. These delays threatened those plans’ financial situation, making it more likely that either workers would not get their pension, or Americans would be on the hook for another bailout.
We need a fresh perspective leading PBGC. Someone who will reform the agency to better serve the American people. Ms. Dhillon is committed to this mission.
She successfully led large organizations, both in government and in the private sector. As Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Ms. Dhillon led the Commission’s efforts to address discrimination and enforce laws as Congress intended. She secured more than $535 million in recoveries for victims of workplace discrimination.
Ms. Dhillon’s experience and strong vision make her the right person to get PBGC back on track. I proudly support her nomination and urge my colleagues to do the same.
With that, I recognize Senator Sanders for his opening statement.
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