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Executive director Steven Kandarian of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation yesterday revealed that the under-funding of pension plans by U.S. companies almost doubled in the past year, soaring to a record high of $300 billion. Mr. Kandarian testified before the Senate Finance Committee that current federal regulations are insufficient to prevent companies from under-funding pension plans---contributing to the default of an increasing number of plans (see WIT's for Jan. 15 and Feb. 18, 2003). The strain of taking over the obligations of these plans has put a major strain on the quasi-governmental PBGC (see WIT's for Jan. 31, 2003), which according to Mr. Kandarian now has $10 billion less than it would need to cover the obligations of pension plans currently judged to be at risk of defaulting.