A congressional auditors study issued Tuesday said more than half of the United States’ 100 largest corporate pension plans were underfunded in 2002, Reuters reported.
The Government Accountability Office found that a quarter of the plans were less than 90 percent funded, and from 1995 to 2002, in 65.2 percent of the 100 biggest funds, the corporations paid no cash contributions.
The GAO used disclosed forms from pension insurance agency, Pension Benefit Guarity Corp., to conduct the study.
Ohio Rep. John Boehner, a republican who chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee, told Reuters that outdated pension laws are again failing to protect workers. He also said the out-dated rules put the burden on tax-payers to bail-out pension insurers if financial conditions worsen and they cannot cover their own costs.
But Boehner told Reuters he is working with Texas republican Sam Johnson, who chairs the Employer-Employee Relations Subcommittee, and Bill Thomas, the Ways and Means Committee chairman and republican from California, he expects to have pension reform legislation ready next month.