§231u Benefit Preservation

Summary

Each year the Railroad Retirement Board must make a five-year money forecast for the Railroad Retirement Account. By May 1 each year (starting in 1984) the Board must project expected income and payments. Beginning in 2003 the Board must also compute the account benefits ratio and the average account benefits ratio for the next five fiscal years. By July 1 the Board must send a written report of those projections to the President, the Speaker of the House, and the President of the Senate. If the forecast shows the Account cannot pay full benefits at some time in the five‑year period, the report must say the first fiscal year benefits would have to be cut, the first year the Board would recommend stopping borrowing under section 360(d), and the percentage-of-payroll adjustments (and any other changes) that would be needed if put in place at the start of the next fiscal year. If the Board’s report says funds will be insufficient, the Board must publish that report in the Federal Register 20 to 30 days after sending it. Within 180 days after that publication, railroad employee and carrier representatives must send funding proposals to the President, the Speaker, and the President of the Senate, and the President must send recommendations to the Speaker and the President of the Senate, including a plan to separate social security equivalent benefits from industry pension equivalent benefits to keep social security equivalent benefits paid continuously. Also, within 180 days after a report that names the first fiscal year when cuts would be needed, the Board must publish rules to keep benefits as level as possible each month that year and to make sure no one gets less than they would have received under the Social Security Act minus any reductions required under sections 231b(m) or 231c(i). Those rules take effect for the fiscal year named in the report unless later law or a later Board report changes them, and they can be changed the same way as other Board rules.