WASHINGTON – Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Chair Bob Good (R-VA) are continuing their oversight of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) by probing Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for answers regarding efforts to hold PBGC accountable for recovering taxpayer funds for improper payments to more than 60 union pension plans. This probe comes in the wake of the discovery of more than $134 million in overpayments for two union plans alone.
Today, the lawmakers sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding information regarding DOJ’s plan to ensure the recovery of taxpayer dollars from a PBGC pension fund bailout that improperly included funding for thousands of deceased plan participants.
In the letter, the lawmakers write:“The Committee on Education and the Workforce (Committee) is continuing its investigation of the Biden-Harris administration’s implementation of the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) program that was included in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). As part of this investigation, the Committee seeks information about the steps the Department of Justice (DOJ) is taking to ensure that taxpayer money is recovered after the Biden-Harris administration made improper payments to multiemployer plans. … On March 4, 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote leading to the enactment of ARPA, a $1.9 trillion ‘thank you’ gift for the interest groups that most supported the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign. Included in ARPA was the SFA program… PBGC projects it will pay an estimated $79.7 billion in SFA to 211 failing multiemployer pension plans. As of July 15, 2024, PBGC had approved $61.9 billion in SFA.”
The lawmakers continue: “In November 2023, the Committee became aware that PBGC approved more than $127 million in SFA program overpayments for at least 3,479 deceased participants for one plan alone, the Central States, Southeast, and Southwest Penson Fund (Central States). … On April 8, 2024, DOJ announced it had entered into a civil settlement agreement to receive repayment of these funds from Central States. … However, PBGC has not reported repayment from more than 60 other plans that received similar improper payments. … PBGC identified deceased participants on rolls of more than 60 other multiemployer plans that received improper payments based on those rolls. None of these other plans are reported to have restored the improper payments. The Committee requests information about what further action DOJ is taking to ensure that other multiemployer pension plans that received improper payments will soon be repaying these funds.”
The lawmakers conclude by requesting that Garland and DOJ provide additional information, including:
All documents and communications related to DOJ’s decision to investigate Central States and the Graphic Communications National Pension Fund.
All documents and communications related to any steps DOJ is taking to ensure that all other multiemployer pension plans that received improper SFA payments will repay those amounts.
All documents and communications related to any multiemployer pension plans for which PBGC identified deceased participants on the plans’ application rolls but which DOJ has chosen not to investigate.
Is DOJ investigating or planning to investigate any of the more than 60 other multiemployer pension plans for which PBGC identified deceased participants on the plans’ applications for SFA payments? If so, provide the names of those multiemployer pension plans that DOJ is investigating or plans to investigate.
