NEW: Pension Recipient Shares Impact of Relief Secured in American Rescue Plan
“I finally got grandma and grandpa back.”
WASHINGTON – Today, the Education and Labor Committee released a new video of Dana Vargo, the spouse of a retired Teamster and a leading advocate in the fight to protect pension plans. In the video, Vargo discusses how the relief that Congressional Democrats and the Biden-Harris administration secured in the American Rescue Plan has allowed her and her husband to spend more time with their grandchildren. To date, the American Rescue Plan has saved the pensions of 156,759 Americans and protected 785 businesses from being at-risk of closing their doors.
To view the video, click here.
The multiemployer pension crisis threatened to strip more than a million retirees of the pensions they earned over a lifetime of work, jeopardized tens of thousands of businesses and endangered tens of thousands of jobs.
In response, the American Rescue Plan Act created a Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program to avert the immediate crisis threatening the retirement security of American workers, retirees, and their families. This solution was supported by a diverse group of stakeholders, including the AFL-CIO, AARP, the United States Chamber of Commerce, UPS and scores of other employers who participate in multiemployer plans.
To date, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has approved 33 applications from plans based in 11 states and the District of Columbia—with more applications to be approved in the coming months—that were either already insolvent or projected to run out of money in the near future.
“For years, workers, retirees, businesses, and taxpayers have been waiting for Congress to enact a solution to the multiemployer pension crisis,” said Chairman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03). “Congressional Democrats and President Biden delivered a historic victory that is keeping the promises made to retirees, saving businesses from going under, and shielding taxpayers from the even greater cost of a multiemployer pension collapse.”
To learn more about the how the American Rescue Plan Act is saving retirees’ hard-earned pensions and protecting businesses, click here.
To learn how eligible pensions can apply for relief, click here.
To learn what businesses and organizations are saying about this relief, click here.
To learn more about how the cost of rescuing the multi-employer pension system saved the American taxpayers money compared to doing nothing and letting troubled plans fail, click here.
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