Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Require PBGC to Recover Erroneous Special Financial Assistance Payments to Multiemployer Pension Plans
House Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced the introduction of the “Ghost Handouts and Overpayments Stop Today (GHOST) Act,” legislation to require the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to recover overpayments to multiemployer pension funds from the American Rescue Plan Act’s Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program. The legislation would also require the PBGC to verify past and future SFA applications by cross-checking plan participation lists against the full Death Master File to ensure funds are not paying the pensions of deceased individuals. The legislation comes after reports that the PBGC overpaid the Central State Pension Plan by more than $127 million in Special Financial Assistance Funds for deceased participants.
SWACCA helped to include the SFA program in the American Rescue Plan Act at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and was actively engaged in the deliberations over the regulations that implemented the program.
© 2024 Signatory Wall and Ceiling Contractors Alliance (SWACCA). All rights reserved.