Agency Charged with Bailing Out Failing Pension Funds Struggling.

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, October, 2003

By Marilyn Geewax, The Palm Beach Post, Fla. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Oct. 15--WASHINGTON--So many corporate pension funds are collapsing that the agency charged with bailing them out is falling deeper into trouble, with a deficit soaring to a record $8.8 billion, its director said Tuesday.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s deficit, up from $3.6 billion in 2002, "is the largest in its history and is still growing," Director Steven Kandarian told the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

Even though the agency has been forced to take over thousands of failing private pension funds, Congress is preparing to pass legislation that would let corporations put $26 billion less into their retirement plans during the next two years....