{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heitkamp.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/heidi-in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=3E54463C-CB9A-4307-A4E3-9881FB5490FF", "Prairie Public: Heitkamp holds Bismarck rally for pension protection", "2017-11-22", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "ND", "Heidi Heitkamp", "H001069", "www.heitkamp.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Dave Thompson \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) held a \"pension rally\" at the North Dakota Teamsters' Union headquarters in Bismarck Tuesday (11-21).\r\nHeitkamp said she\u2019s helped to write a bill that would protect retirees -- mainly UPS drivers, other truckers and grocery workers -- who depend on the Central States Pension Fund for their pensions.\r\nThe fund became insolvent, and the federal government had to take it over.\u00a0 Pensioners may face benefit cuts. The federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation will also become insolvent, if the Central States Fund and other pension plans fail.\r\nHeitkamp said the workers want what they were promised. She said the bill \u2013 called the \u201cButch Lewis Act\u201d \u2013 would provide government financing to put the plans back on solid financial ground, prevent benefit cuts, and put safeguards in place.\r\n\"How inequitable it is to basically take away someone's pension, or dramatically cut someone's pension, when those people have done nothing wrong themselves,\" Heitkamp said. \"Why is it that you can bail out the big banks, but when it comes to solving this problem, there can't be any government resources?\"\r\nTony Goetzfried of Bismarck is a retired truck driver, and former North Dakota Teamsters president. He said employers have been putting money into that pension fund since the 1960s, and the employees gave up raises to put money into that fund.\r\n\"If it (Central States) goes broke, it's going to cost the taxpayers money,\" Goetzfried said. \"We're going to have people filing for heating assistance, food stamps.\"\r\nGoetzfried said this was never a gift to the workers.\r\n\"We all earned it,\" Goetzfried said. \"We worked hard to put the money in there. Now we want to retire.\"\r\nHeitkamp is hoping Congress will pass the Butch Lewis act before year\u2019s end.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.heitkamp.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/heidi-in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=3E54463C-CB9A-4307-A4E3-9881FB5490FF"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2397500686347485, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}