45 U.S.C. § 231u — Benefit preservation

(a) By May 1 of each year starting in 1984, the Railroad Retirement Board must prepare a five-year projection of money coming into and going out of the Railroad Retirement Account, to see whether the Account can pay full benefits in each of the next five calendar years. Starting in 2003, the Board must also compute a projected "account benefits ratio" and "average account benefits ratio" — terms defined in section 3241(c) of the Internal Revenue Code — for each of the next five fiscal years. No later than July 1 each year, the Board must send a written report on these projections to the President, the Speaker of the House, and the President of the Senate. If the projection shows the Account will run short of money at some point in the next five years, the report must also state: (A) the first fiscal year benefits under this subchapter would have to be reduced, absent any fix, because there would not be enough money — not counting money paid from the separate Dual Benefits Payments Account — to pay full benefits every month of that year; (B) the first fiscal year the Board would recommend suspending its authority to borrow under section 360(d), to keep the Railroad Retirement Account from running dry; and (C) how large an adjustment, stated as a percentage of taxable payroll, plus any other cash-flow changes, would be needed to keep the Account financially sound if put in place at the start of the next fiscal year. If a report shows a shortfall coming, the Board must publish it in the Federal Register between 20 and 30 days after sending it to the President and Congress. (b) Within 180 days after a Federal Register report states a needed payroll-percentage adjustment, two things must happen. Representatives of railroad employees and railroad carriers must submit — jointly or separately — funding proposals to the President and Congress designed to keep the Account financially sound. And the President must send the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate any recommendations they think appropriate, including a specific plan to keep paying social security equivalent benefits on time by separating them from industry pension equivalent benefits. (c) Within 180 days after a report states the first fiscal year benefits must be reduced because of insufficient funds, the Board must issue and publish regulations in the Federal Register designed to: (1) keep benefits as steady and as high as possible through every month of that fiscal year; and (2) make sure no individual receives less that year than they would have received if their railroad service after December 31, 1936, had instead been covered by the Social Security Act, minus any reduction required under section 231b(m) or 231c(i). Unless a later law or a later Board report changes things, these regulations apply starting with the fiscal year the Board named in its report, and can be modified, rescinded, or replaced the same way as any other Board regulation issued under this subchapter.