THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 6, 1996 TAG: 9601050028
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 30 lines
The timing of Labor Secretary Robert Reich's announcement of actions against employers who illegally dip into workers' retirement-savings accounts is nothing short of amazing (Business Weekly, Dec. 4).
Less than two weeks earlier, front-page headlines announced that the Department of Treasury was dipping into the federal-employees' pension fund to pay Treasury-bond yields while Washington sorted out the `96 budget. Nor is this the first time that Congress has dipped into the federal pension coffers to meet federal obligations.
Will the Department of Labor be taking the Treasury Department to court over this issue? If not, it would seem to take the sting out of Labor's probe into misuse of 401(k) accounts. While the restoration of $3 million of workers' contributions is impressive, consider the $855 million that the federal government owes the federal pension fund. This appears clearly as a Washington message of ``Do as I say, not as I do.''
DENNIS G. BALSLY
Virginia Beach, Dec. 23, 1995 by CNB