On July 6, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
issued the Final Rules (Final Rules) implementing
the Special Financial Assistance Program (SFA) enacted by Congress
as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA).
The Final Rules follow nearly one year after the PBGC release
of interim final rules (IFR) and further
regulate SFA applications and conditions.
Background
A multiemployer pension plan is a collectively bargained plan
maintained by a labor union and more than one employer in the same
or related industries. There are approximately 1,400 multiemployer
pension plans in the United States, covering nearly 11 million
participants.
About 200 multiemployer plans, covering between 2 to 3 million
participants, are projected to be insolvent in the next 20 years.
Absent legislative relief, these participants would have had their
benefits transferred to the PBGC — and many participants
probably would have suffered cuts in benefits (as the
