Pension Plan Loans – Passage

Passage of the bill, as amended, that would establish the Pension Rehabilitation Administration within the Treasury Department to provide 30-year loans to multiemployer defined benefit pension plans in critical or declining financial status, to allow such plans to meet pension obligations to current retirees. It would also authorize the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to provide financial assistance to qualifying pension plans and would appropriate such sums as may be necessary for such assistance. It would establish a dedicated Treasury trust fund for expenses of the new administration, with funding generated through Treasury Department bond sales. It would require the administration to establish the loan program by Sept. 30, 2019 and issue rules regarding the program, in consultation with the PBGC and the Treasury and Labor departments, by Dec. 31, 2019. It would require loans issued under the program to have "as low an interest rate as is feasible" and would require loan recipients to provide annual status reports to the Treasury Department. Among other provisions, it would increase a number of penalties related to failure to file tax returns and retirement plan returns. It would modify certain distribution rules for funds distributed upon an employee's death to designated beneficiaries under multiemployer defined contribution pension plans.