Lehigh Times

ALLENTOWN, PA – On June 29, Congresswoman Susan Wild joined Gene Sperling, Senior Advisor to the President and American Rescue Plan Coordinator; Gordon Hartogensis, Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation; Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey; and John Shinn, International Secretary-Treasurer of the United Steelworkers to announce new Special Financial Assistance protecting union workers’ and retirees’ pensions in Pennsylvania, made possible by the American Rescue Plan.

This investment totals $860 million in Special Financial Assistance to the National Integrated Group Pension Plan (NIGPP), benefitting more than 48,000 workers and retirees in the manufacturing industry, many being Pennsylvanians. Prior to this investment, the plan was projected to run out of money in 2034.

“Today’s announcement means that thousands of Pennsylvania workers will receive the full pension they earned after a lifetime of hard work,” said Congresswoman Susan Wild. “It’s a great day for employees and retirees – and it’s thanks to the American Rescue Plan that this investment in our middle class and their retirement security is taking place.”

Today’s announcement protecting the pensions of Pennsylvania workers is made possible by the American Rescue Plan’s Special Financial Assistance Program, under which multiemployer pension plans that are struggling financially can apply for to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) for assistance. This provision was adopted from the Butch Lewis Act, legislation that Congresswoman Wild worked to pass during the 116th Congress and pushed to include as a part of American Rescue Plan to find a long-term solution to the pension insolvency crisis.

Read more about today’s announcement of Special Financial Assistance to the Pennsylvania-based NIGPP and how it is protecting pensions for tens of thousands of Pennsylvania workers and retirees HERE.

Nationwide Impacts of the American Rescue Plan’s Special Financial Assistance Program:

• Multiemployer plans that receive assistance are positioned to remain solvent through at least 2051, with no cuts to earned benefits. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, every multiemployer pension plan that faced near-term insolvency and/or benefits cuts is projected to remain solvent through 2051 and beyond.
• The two to three million workers and retirees with plans that had faced cuts are expected to receive their full pension benefits for the next three decades, protecting millions of workers who would have been harmed by cuts.
• Harsh pension cuts were reversed for more than 80,000 workers and retirees in 18 multiemployer plans. Prior to the American Rescue Plan, MPRA allowed plans to cut benefits to remain solvent – but the Special Financial Assistance Program ensures that the more than 80,000 workers who had their pension benefits cuts are eligible to be fully reinstated, maintain full benefits for the foreseeable future, and be projected to remain indefinitely solvent.
• PGBC’s Multiemployer Pension Insurance Program was projected to become insolvent in 2026, but the American Rescue Plan’s Special Financial Assistance program extended the solvency of the PBGC multiemployer insurance program from 2026 to 2055. This relief is the most substantial policy to strengthen the solvency of our nation’s multiemployer pensions in close to 50 years, since the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974. 

See below for a transcript of Rep. Wild’s full remarks:

“Thank you so much, Gene… And good morning to everyone else. Sometimes, pensions are not the sexiest or most exciting subject, but I will tell you that I am very excited to be here with all of you today. And believe me, for people who are dependent on their pensions, it is indeed an exciting topic. So I’m just happy to be here to highlight and celebrate the landmark investment in the dignity and security of Pennsylvania workers – which I think is an investment that demonstrates what is possible when we actually put the American people first.

“I represent Pennsylvania’s 7th district, otherwise known as the Greater Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania. It’s a community with a long, rich history of manufacturing, organized labor, and proudly made American steel. It was the home of Bethlehem Steel, at one time; unfortunately, Bethlehem Steel is no more. Generations of families worked at Bethlehem Steel before it closed, but we still have steelworkers, we still have lots of organized labor and manufacturing here in my district, and I’m honored to represent all of them while fighting for the wages and treatment that they deserve.

“And I have to tell you, I believe that representing this district means standing alongside the workers who built the place that we call home in the fight for good wages and safe workplaces, and then standing up for them once they’re done working. It means honoring the lifetime of hard work and the promises that were made to them: for dignity and security in retirement, and their pension.

“Which is why we’re all here today! In recognition of the unstoppable advocacy it took to get here, and in celebration of this meaningful victory for workers in Pennsylvania, which will allow Pennsylvanians to retire with dignity and receive the whole, entire pension they worked their life to earn. 

“That’s what the American Rescue Plan’s Special Financial Assistance Program is: it is a victory for working people. It is the result of a years-long fight, led by Butch Lewis: a Teamster, a trucker, and a good, honorable man who when faced with severe cuts to his pension, became a leader and a fierce advocate in the movement to protect the retirement security of his fellow workers.

“It's thanks to his advocacy, and the advocacy of countless more workers – who, when told that their pensions wouldn’t be what they had expected and what they had earned, stood up and said “hell no.” And it was thanks to them that the House passed the Butch Lewis Act back in 2019.

“I was and I still am on the Education and Labor Committee. We had many hearings on the Butch Lewis Act. I heard from many witnesses who told sad stories of how their pensions were at great risk, and some of them for whom their pension had been eviscerated, and it was heartbreaking. These are people who are no longer working age, who thought that they were going to retire with dignity and who were not able to.

“So it became a real motivation for me to make sure that we got that act passed, and it actually protected the earned benefits of more than one million employees and retirees. But it’s thanks to that advocacy that we kept up the fight, and kept pushing, and that it was included in the American Rescue Plan. 

“Today, that victory is going paying dividends for tens of thousands of union men and women in Pennsylvania. The announcement by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation means hundreds of millions of dollars invested in paying out the full earned benefits of hardworking Pennsylvanians, like USW and UAW workers. 48,000 workers and retirees with this coverage, many in Pennsylvania, will get what they earned after years and years of work. 

“And the program, the Special Financial Assistance Program, means keeping pensions solvent for millions of workers. Benefits protected for countless people who were faced with cuts that would harm their livelihoods. And benefits reinstated for those who did, through no fault of their own, like some of the witnesses that I heard from in committee, those who have had their benefits cut. The most significant effort in nearly 50 years towards protecting our pension systems.

“So as I said at the beginning, some people, especially when they are many, many years from retirement, may not think of pensions as a particularly interesting subject. But let me tell you, that in my district, the thousands of retirees will be welcoming this news.

“This is what investing in America looks like: fulfilling our promise to those who worked their entire lives, and beating back attacks on the dignity and security of retirement. Those attacks come every single day. But the American Rescue Plan made this happen. It’s a bill that I was proud to fight alongside the Senate and my colleagues in the House to pass into law. And a law that, quite honestly, I’ve become even prouder of every passing day, as we see the impact this monumental legislation has had on the middle class, both in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. It’s an investment that we are seeing at work here today in support of the economic security of working families.

“This is what doing right by our workers looks like. I’m really proud for the role I played in fulfilling our promise to these hardworking Americans who are now going to benefit from this investment, and I’m proud to stand alongside workers and organized labor in pushing for the benefits they earned, and I will do that every single day. And if there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that I’ll always have the backs of the workers who built this country and built the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Because I too, like the President, believe that investing in America means investing in working people.  

“So thank you very much, everyone, and I will now hand it back over to Gene to take it from here.”

Original Source can be found here.