§231u Benefit Preservation

Summary

The Railroad Retirement Board must each year make a five-year forecast of money going into and out of the Railroad Retirement Account. By May 1 each year it must finish the forecast, and since 2003 it must also calculate the account benefits ratio and the average account benefits ratio (as defined in 26 U.S.C. 3241(c)) for the next five fiscal years. By July 1 the Board must send a written report of those results to the President, the Speaker of the House, and the President of the Senate. If the forecast shows the Account will not have enough money to pay full benefits at some time in the five-year period, the report must say the first fiscal year when benefits would have to be cut (except benefits paid from the Dual Benefits Payments Account), the first year when the Board would advise stopping the borrowing authority under section 360(d), and the percentage-of-payroll change and any other steps needed to keep the Account solvent if they began at the start of the next fiscal year. If such a shortfall report is sent, the Board must publish it in the Federal Register 20 to 30 days later. Within 180 days after that Federal Register notice, railroad employee and carrier representatives must send funding proposals to the President, the Speaker, and the President of the Senate. The President must also send recommendations to the Speaker and the President of the Senate within 180 days, including a specific plan to separate social security equivalent benefits from industry pension equivalent benefits so social security equivalent benefits keep being paid. Also, within 180 days after a report that names the first year benefits would have to be cut, the Board must publish rules to keep benefits level at the highest steady amount possible during that fiscal year and to make sure no one gets less than they would have received under the Social Security Act for service after 1936, minus any reductions required under sections 231b(m) or 231c(i).