To express the sense of the Senate with respect to pension reform.

1. Adds SEC. __. SENSE OF THE SENATE WITH RESPECT TO PENSION REFORM at the end of title V

   Adds a section

   In S.Con.Res. 18 · Placed on Calendar Senate

   (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that any reconciled mandatory agriculture savings required under this resolution should be primarily achieved through modifications to the payment limitation provisions of the Food Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.

   Inserted: SEC. __. SENSE OF THE SENATE WITH RESPECT TO PENSION REFORM.

   Inserted: (a) Findings.--The Senate finds the following:

   Inserted: (1) The rules for calculating the funded status of pension plans and for determining calculations, premiums, and other issues should ensure strong funding of such plans in both good and bad economic times.

   Inserted: (2) The expiration of the interest rate provisions of the Pension Funding Equity Act of 2004 at the end of 2005 and the need to address the deficit at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (referred to in this section as the "PBGC") demand enactment of pension legislation this year.

   Inserted: (3) Thirty-four million active and retired workers are relying on their defined benefit plans to provide retirement security, and a failure by Congress to reform the defined benefit system will place at risk the pensions of millions of Americans.

   Inserted: (4) Stabilization of the defined benefit pension system and the PBGC may require significant and structural changes in the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act of 1974 and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, which must be undertaken in a single comprehensive set of reforms.

   Inserted: (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that the Senate conferees shall insist on the Senate position expressed in this resolution with respect to PBGC premiums.

   Original wording

   At the end of title V, insert the following:

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As printed