This content is from: Corner Office
The 2015 Pension 40: John Kline
No. 11 John Kline, U.S. Representative / Minnesota


As chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and of its health, employment, labor and pensions subcommittee, Minnesotan John Kline, 68, is the GOP’s man on pensions in the House of Representatives. Last year he and Representative George Miller, a California Democrat Politico once described as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s “strong right arm,” teamed up to pass the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. That bipartisan effort to shore up failing union pension funds has proved controversial among organized labor: Some appreciate the need to save troubled funds, while others are resisting the inevitable benefit cuts from restructurings. “Business and labor leaders came together to support the legislation because they understood it was the only responsible option,” says Kline. “Those trying to undermine the law risk inflicting greater pain on millions of Americans.” Opponents of the bill are pushing a Senate proposal introduced in June by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders that would repeal the benefit suspension provision of Kline-Miller. In September, Kline, who was first elected to Congress in 2002, announced he would retire at the end of 2016. Some labor leaders hope Kline will tackle legislation that would offer a way for multiemployer plans to offer more flexible, or hybrid, pension solutions before he leaves. Kline, however, has said his legislative priority is the passage of a rewrite of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind program, which mandated school testing and expired in 2007. Kline’s bill passed the GOP-controlled House in early December, leaving time for him to return to the pension wars. Kline says he has been talking with stakeholders and colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee. The proposal, he says, “continues to be one of my leading priorities, and I am hopeful we can finish our work next year.“ Kline will lack one old ally: Miller, 70, retired from Congress last January.
![]() 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation ![]() 3. Chris Christie New Jersey ![]() 4. Randi Weingarten AmericanFederation of Teachers ![]() 5. Phyllis Borzi U.S. Department of Labor |
![]() 6. Kevin de León California ![]() 7. Alejandro García Padilla Commonwealth ofPuerto Rico ![]() 8. Laurence Fink BlackRock ![]() 9. Rahm Emanuel Chicago ![]() 10. Sean McGarvey North AmericanBuilding Trades Unions |
![]() 11. John Kline Minnesota ![]() 12. J. Mark Iwry U.S. TreasuryDepartment ![]() 13. Damon Silvers AFL-CIO ![]() 14. Jeffrey Immelt General Electric Co. ![]() 15. Joshua Gotbaum Brookings Institution |
![]() 16. Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. ![]() 17. Mark Mullet Washington ![]() 18. Terry O'Sullivan Laborers' International Union of North America ![]() 19. Raymond Dalio Bridgewater Associates ![]() 20. Ted Wheeler Oregon |
![]() 21. Thomas Nyhan Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund ![]() 22. Karen Ferguson & Karen Friedman Pensions Rights Center ![]() 23. Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee forMultiemployer Plans ![]() 24. Robert O'Keef Motorola Solutions ![]() 25. Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley |
![]() 26. Kenneth Feinberg The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg ![]() 27. Orrin Hatch Utah ![]() 28. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University ![]() 29. Ian Lanoff Groom Law Group ![]() 30. Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business |
![]() 31. Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees' Retirement System ![]() 32. Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services ![]() 33. Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research ![]() 34. Denise Nappier Connecticut ![]() 35. W. Thomas Reeder Jr. Pension BenefitGuaranty Corp. |
![]() 36. Hank Kim National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems ![]() 37. Paul Singer Elliott Management Corp. ![]() 38. Bailey Childers National PublicPension Coalition ![]() 39. Amy Kessler Prudential Financial ![]() 40. Judy Mares U.S. Labor Department |