Cromnibus Bill Heads to President's Desk

Late Saturday evening the Senate voted 56-40 in favor of the $1.1 trillion cromnibus bill that had the House in turmoil earlier in the week. Dubbed cromnibus because it's part omnibus and part continuing resolution, the nine-month spending bill now awaits the president's signature. It funds federal agencies through the end of the fiscal year with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security which is funded only through Feb. 27, 2015. A series of association-backed multi-employer pension reforms, designed to allow employers and employees the opportunity to protect and improve retirement programs, is included in the Consolidated and Further Continuing Act of 2015. Steve Sandherr, AGC of America's chief executive officer, released the following statement after the House passed the omnibus bill last week. "The most important aspect of these new reform measures is that they finally provide employers and employees with the flexibility to voluntarily act to shore up multi-employer retirement plans. Without these new measures, thousands of retirees would likely have been forced to accept the savage cuts to their retirement benefits that come when the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation is forced to step in. This is the culmination of three years of joint labor and management cooperation to shore up troubled plans."

Associated General Contractors of America