E&W Blog

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) just confirmed what Republicans knew to be true, but Democrats refused to admit: the taxpayer-funded bailout of failing and insolvent multiemployer pension plans will fail. Despite a massive influx in taxpayer dollars, PBGC is still on track for insolvency.  
 
What’s equally concerning, the price tag for the program continues to rise. When Democrats passed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the program would cost $86 billion. In July, when PBGC released their interim final rule implementing the legislation, they estimated that it would make $94 billion in payments. A mere two months later, PBGC is now estimating a $97.2 billion price tag.
 
The uncapped nature of the bailout was and remains seriously irresponsible.
 
As Republican Leaders of the Committee commented in August, ARPA did not address the systemic flaws in the multiemployer system that lead to plan underfunding, insolvency, and benefit cuts. PBGC also makes clear that ARPA “was not designed to address the structural weaknesses that contributed to the crisis and put at risk the security of workers’ retirement income.”
 
Congressional Democrats did not protect workers or retirees.