In the clamor that surrounded the current administration’s adoption of the American Rescue Act of 2021 (ARPA), quietly tucked in as Subtitle H is the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021 (Butch Lewis). Butch Lewis has been unsuccessfully bouncing around Congress since 2019. While Butch Lewis is long on rhetoric, at this juncture it is lacking in details or controls.  Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) regulations will be issued sometime in July. In the interim, it is important for employers to remain vigilant about actions by the PBGC.

As currently structured, Butch Lewis is a “logical” successor to Congress’ previously flawed efforts to “cure” the funding ills of the multi-employer benefit system. Those efforts began in 1980 with Congress’ passage of the Multi-employer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (MPPAA) and has continued through the passage of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA).  More…