Senate Hears Pension Plan Woes

The Senate Finance Committee heard from Northwest Airlines and Delta on Tuesday, as the airlines "said that they would need more relief from pension contributions by the end of the year, failing which they might have to seek bankruptcy protection." The head of the GAO -- the U.S. comptroller general -- told the committee that pension woes are not unique to the airline industry. The Financial Times (subscribe/trial) reports that "[t]he level of underfunding of defined benefit pension plans of US corporations has jumped 27 per cent [since April 15, 2004] to a record $353.7bn, raising fears that the agency that insures these pension plans could face a widening of its own deficit." For more, see Pension Crisis and Oct 2004 GAO Report (pdf).