Statement by US Secretary of Labor Walsh on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Interim Final Rule on Special Financial Assistance

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh issued the following statement on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s issuance of an interim final rule implementing Special Financial Assistance to financially troubled multiemployer pension plans:

“Every working person deserves to retire with dignity and receive all the benefits they earned during their career. As a member of the labor movement, I know firsthand how important pension security is to working families. As Chair of its Board of Directors, I am proud that today’s rulemaking by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation will help secure the pensions of an estimated 3 million American workers, retirees and their families by providing financial assistance to over 200 severely underfunded multiemployer plans.

“This is a historic achievement to secure the pension benefits of hardworking union members and the most substantial policy ever passed to further the solvency of our nation's multiemployer pension plans. Unions, their members and beneficiaries of these plans have been fighting for years for what these workers have earned.

“The Biden-Harris administration made it a priority to stand with them, working closely with Congress to ensure this assistance was included in the American Rescue Plan. The PBGC’s regulation implements the program just as Congress designed it. This is just one way the administration is protecting the retirement benefits of workers and retirees, which is one of my top priorities at the Department of Labor.”