The gentleman from Ohio is making an interesting fanfare lately — one that might hit remarkably close to political sentiments in Western Pennsylvania.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown announced recently that he’ll introduce legislation intended to ensure that retirees can keep their pensions.

The Ohio Democrat cited several pension plans in his home state, including the massive Central States Teamsters Pension Plan, the United Mine Workers Pension Plan, the Ironworkers Local 17 Pension Plan, the Ohio Southwest Carpenters Pension Plan and the Bakers and Confectioners Pension Plan. He said all of them are on the brink of failure and threatened by massive cuts.

Brown’s proposed remedy would create a new bureaucracy within the U.S. Treasury Department, to be called the Pension Rehabilitation Administration, or PRA, which would authorize pension plans “to borrow the money they need to remain solvent and continue providing retirement security for retirees and workers for decades to come,” according to a statement from Brown.

So, follow the money, if you will.

Brown’s plan is to have the PRA lend billions of dollars from the Treasury to the pension funds, which are jointly controlled by the unions and employers. The 30-year low-interest loans “would buy time for the pension plans to make smart long-term investments for the future, while continuing to pay benefits owed to current retirees.”

Treasury would raise these billions by selling bonds to financial institutions, Brown says.

There are two big premises going on here, and it’s important to name them.

The first premise is that big company pensions will make a comeback within 30 years. It seems less and less likely with the passage of time. Pensions are defined benefit plans; they put pressure on the employer to pay out a set amount to each beneficiary. They work well in times of steady population growth, but there is no guarantee that U.S. population will grow substantially in coming years or decades. Locally, we’ve weathered the effects of shrinking population including the sales of public school buildings and the decline of property tax bases.

Thirty years from now, Sen. Brown will be 95. As a U.S. senator, his pension is secure.

The second premise is that Brown is running for re-election in 2108. Brown narrowly defeated conservative Republican challenger Josh Mandel in 2012. Mandel has already announced his bid for a rematch.

Brown’s push for pension reform might serve as a political barometer for organized labor on both sides of the state border. To what extent will labor Democrats rally behind Brown? What similar candidacies will emerge in coming months in Western Pennsylvania, especially as the Marcellus Shale gas industry matures and attracts hundreds of skilled workers to our region?

Will young workers regard a pension as the golden fleece their fathers and grandfathers pursued? Or are the millennials more content with the independence — along with the ups and downs — of an Individual Retirement Account or 401(k)?

It’s not too soon to read the tea leaves of Congressional campaigns in 2018.