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This bill — the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act (aka the Butch Lewis Act) — would establish the Pension Rehabilitation Administration (PRA) within the Treasury Dept. The PRA would be authorized to issue bonds to finance loans to “critical and declining” status multiemployer pension plans, plans that have suspended benefits and some recently insolvent plans currently receiving financial assistance from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Loan approvals would be made in consultation with the Treasury Dept., Labor Dept, and the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

The Treasury Dept. would issue bonds to fund the loan program and transfer the proceeds to the trust fund this bill established. The PRA would then be able to use the funds to 1) make loans; 2) pay principal and interest on the bonds; and 3) for administrative and operating expenses without further appropriation.

Plans that receive a loan would be required to fund their obligations to those in pay status through:

Annuity purchases;
Cash matching or duration matching portfolios; or
Some other portfolio prescribed by the Treasury Secretary in regulations with a similar risk profile as cash matching and duration matching and is equally protective of participants’ and beneficiaries’ interests.

This bill would allow the sponsor of a multiemployer pension plan which is applying for a loan under this bill to also apply to the PBGC for financial assistance if, after receiving the loan, the plan will still become (or remain) insolvent within the 30-year period beginning on the date of the loan.

This new agency would be headed by a presidentially-appointed Director, who would serve a five-year term. The Director would have the power to: 1) appoint deputy directors, officers and employees; and 2) enter contracts for financial and actuarial services. The agency would be funded from Treasury’s appropriated budget.

Under the terms of the loans that’d be made until this bill, plans wouldn’t be allowed to increase benefits and employers’ contributions to the plans couldn’t be reduced.

","official_title":"To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to create a Pension Rehabilitation Trust Fund, to establish a Pension Rehabilitation Administration within the Department of the Treasury to make loans to multiemployer defined benefit plans, and for other purposes.","short_title":"Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act of 2019","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act of 2019 This bill establishes the Pension Rehabilitation Administration within the Department of the Treasury and a related trust fund to make loans to certain multiemployer defined benefit pension plans. 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Should the Treasury Make Loans to Prop Up Insolvent & Suspended Multiemployer Pension Plans?