Smeal Professor Testifies Before Senate Committee on Pensions
A faculty member at Penn State's Smeal College of Business has been called to testify before the U.S. Senate regarding pension funding during recessions. Ron Gebhardtsbauer, faculty-in-charge of Smeal's Actuarial Science Program, testified Oct. 29 before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (October 30, 2009) – Ron Gebhardtsbauer, faculty-in-charge of Smeal's Actuarial Science Program, testified on Oct. 29 before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) regarding pension funding. Gebhardtsbauer suggested ways to fix the funding issues being experienced by defined benefit retirement plans and offer long-term solutions to make U.S. pension programs viable for years to come.
Archived video of the hearing, entitled "Pensions in Peril: Helping Workers Preserve Retirement Security Through a Recession," is available on C-SPAN at www.c-spanarchives.org/program/289699-1. Gebhardtsbauer's testimony begins at the 110:26 mark, and he fields questions from the committee at 135:00 and 145:22.
A transcript of his testimony is available on Research with Impact, Smeal's faculty research Web site.
Gebhardtsbauer has more than 30 years of experience in actuarial science. Before joining Smeal in 2008 to direct the Actuarial Science Program, he was senior benefits adviser to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. Prior to his service with Congress, Gebhardtsbauer spent nearly 12 years as senior pension fellow with the American Academy of Actuaries. He also spent eight years as the chief actuary for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
