As of publication, the pending bipartisan budget bill includes a provision that would create a special committee of Congress to address critical multiemployer pension plans that have been identified by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) as headed to insolvency. Many of these plans are ineligible for relief under the 2014 Multiemployer Pension Reform Act. Without government intervention these plans will fail and bankrupt the PBGC in the process. If the budget agreement passes, then this newly formed committee would have until the end of November 2018 to identify a solution to the pension crisis.
While AGC is supportive of finding a solution to the nation’s multiemployer pension issues and addressing funding challenges at the PBGC, AGC is focused on advancing legislation that would offer a new, sustainable, and more equitable designed plan—called a composite plan—which is a long-standing AGC priority. AGC is also concerned about how this special committee would address the PBGC’s funding, as AGC would oppose massive PBGC premium increases on healthy plans to fund such a solution.
For more information contact Jim Young at [email protected].