The House approved a coronavirus relief legislative package Thursday that includes major changes for multiemployer pension plans.
The legislation is a reworked version of the House's Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, or HEROES Act, approved May 12, also along party lines and with dim prospects for advancement.
The latest version shrinks the cost of the economic relief package to $2.2 trillion from $3.4 trillion but is still $600 billion more than a related Senate proposal.
The package still includes some funding relief for both multiemployer and single-employer retirement plans by extending amortization periods for funding shortfalls.
To help struggling multiemployer pension plans and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s multiemployer program, it gives the agency authority and resources to partition more troubled multiemployer pension plans while protecting against benefit cuts. The legislation also doubles the PBGC guarantee for multiemployer plans, which currently is much smaller than one for single-employer plans.
