U.S. Rep Debbie Dingell delivers opening statement at First Joint Pension Committee Meeting.

Photo Purple Walrus Press.

Editor & Publisher Jeff Brown.

According to the office of U.S. Representative Dingell, U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-12) Thursday delivered the following opening statement at the first meeting of the Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pensions.

“Thank you Mr. Chairman. It’s an honor to be here with you and with Chairman Brown on an issue that is so important. 

“We do have a monumental task ahead of us. I have lived with these men and women for years who worked a lifetime and contributed money to their pension fund. They’re not asking for a hand out. They invested in their pension, thinking they would have a safe and secure retirement, and suddenly the system is not there for them.

“I continue to have grown men cry in my arms because they don’t know how they are going to live – they don’t know how they’re going to eat, what they’re going to give their families.

“So we’ve got to roll up our sleeves and get to work. This select committee was created for a reason. It was created because there will be an economic crisis in this country if we do not act on multiemployer pensions by the end of the year. It’s that simple. We’ve got to make difficult decisions, but I know almost everybody on this committee and we’re not afraid of tough work.

“John taught me, and his father taught him, that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason. We need to listen. But by the end of the year, we have a moral responsibility to the working men and women of this country to figure this out and come up with a solution. And none of us are afraid of tough work.