I think it was the great Rabbi Hillel who said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” We're told there are these people who are so worried about this bill, but they're not speaking up. I think we had one or two witnesses with concerns; the rest were in favour of it. My office made a point, in the interest of balance, to ask that the clerk invite the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council. I understand they didn't even bother to accept our invitation. Presumably, they represent the employer. There was another organization, I think it's called FETCO, which is responsible for federally regulated employers. Did I miss it? Did we hear a peep from them? I don't think we did.
If all the plan sponsors are so worried about this bill, I don't know why they didn't come and say so. Right now, if we're relying on the evidence presented at the committee, the testimony was overwhelmingly in the other direction. I appreciate that you've come here with a lot of very intelligent insights into the statute, the bill and the technical consequences of passing it. Frankly, you're the only one doing that. I suppose that's a compliment. The industry has been asleep at the wheel.
On that point, the argument that some people have made in the past against this bill and this idea is that it would raise the cost of capital. Businesses would have a harder time raising loans if members knew they would be knocked down the bankruptcy liquidation food chain. I have to say that I find that to be a strength of the bill, because it would force CEOs in the present day to ensure their pension is properly funded to be able to go to the markets. If lenders were consistently telling the CFO and the CEO, “Well, we're not going to lend to you because we're worried that we're going to be behind a pension liability,” that would be a wonderful incentive for those executives to eliminate that liability, by ensuring they put enough funds into the pension entity.
What do you say to that?