Employers would pay higher insurance premiums to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which some experts say are unnecessary, under budget legislation the House of Representatives approved Wednesday.

Tucked into H.R. 1314 are provisions that would increase the flat-rate premium that all defined benefit plan sponsors pay as well as the variable-rate premium that employers with underfunded plans pay.

Under the measure, the flat-rate premium would rise to $69 per plan participant in 2017, $74 in 2018 and $80 in 2019.

That compares with $57 per plan participant this year and $64 next year, rates that already have been set under current law.

In addition, the legislation that the House approved on a 266-167 vote would increase the variable-rate premium to $33 per $1,000 of plan underfunding in 2017, $37 in 2018 and $41 in 2019. That compares with $24 this year and $30 next year under existing law.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of an earlier version of the legislation, which called for slightly lower premium increases, projected the measure would result in employers paying an additional $4 billion in PBGC premiums from 2016 through 2025. Last year, employers paid the PBGC just over $3.8 billion in premiums.

The proposal has outraged benefit lobbying groups and others, who say it was driven by budget gimmickry, with the additional funds to be used to offset the federal budget deficit rather than the PBGC's need for additional revenue.

"For the third time in four years, Congress has hiked pension premiums to pay for unrelated spending priorities, without regard for what it means to employers, workers and retirees," James Klein, president of the American Benefits Council in Washington said in a statement.

“The truth is that the agency doesn't even need the money. The fiscal condition of PBGC's single-employer program has been steadily improving, and those improvements are projected to continue for the next decade,” Deborah Forbes, executive director of the Bethesda, Maryland-based Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets, which represents large pension sponsors, said in a statement.

In a recent report, the PBGC projected that the deficit in its single-employer insurance program will shrink to $4.9 billion by 2024, down from last year's actual deficit of $19.3 billion, due to improved pension plan solvency and premium increases already put into effect.

Benefit experts warn that raising the premiums will lead even more employers to slim down their pension plans, such as by offering cash lump sums to participants and purchasing group annuities, and erode the PBGC's premium base.

“Raising premium rates will only hurt the agency by forcing more employers to consider exiting the system,” Ms. Forbes said.

The measure also includes a provision that would scrap a health care reform law provision that will, once federal regulations are finalized, require employers with at least 200 employees to automatically enroll employees who don't opt for a health care plan.

The budget reconciliation bill, which President Obama said he would sign, now heads to the Senate, where quick approval is expected.