A bipartisan coalition of 84 of his colleagues joined Congressman Nolan to again urge the Treasury Department to reject a request by Central States Pension Funds for drastic benefits cuts for hundreds of thousands of workers and retirees.
U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan this week doubled-down on an urgent call to the Treasury Department to reject a request by the Central States Pension Fund to be allowed to slash earned retirement benefits for some 270,000 active workers and retirees in Minnesota and throughout the Midwest by 50-70 percent.
This week's action follows a previous letter sent by Nolan, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and 16 other members of Congress calling on Ken Feinberg, the Department's Special Master of Implementation, to turn down the request.
Nolan recently met with hundreds of local Minnesota retirees, and has called on the Executive Director of the Central States Pension Fund to appear before Congress with more details on the benefit reduction plan.
"Big corporations that get into financial trouble should not be permitted to take their problems and failures out on employee pensions -- especially while executives collect tens of millions of dollars in golden parachutes," Nolan said. "These pension cuts are shameless, un-American and unbelievable. We're going to leave no stone unturned to prevent them."
At Congressman Nolan's invitation, Mr. Feinberg is expected to be in Minneapolis next week at the University of Minnesota's Coffman Memorial Union to hear from individuals who would be impacted by the Central States Pension Plan's application to reduce pension benefits under the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014.