Who: 170 failing multiemployer (union) pension plans covering 1.8 million workers and retirees. What: Special Financial Assistance: lump-sum grants so plans headed for insolvency can pay full benefits through 2051.
$78.1B
committed or authorized
$78.1B
paid out
$262M
recovered (repayments, dividends, fees)
$77.9B
net cost (grants, less money returned)
Outcome
Approved through October 9, 2026: $78.1B for 170 plans, all but about $9M of it already paid. Plans have returned $262M that had been calculated for participants who had died. When it issued the program's final rule in 2022, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation estimated $74–91B in total.
Legal authority: American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Section 9704 (the Butch Lewis Act).