Today, Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03) voted in favor of the Butch Lewis Act, which aims to save the multiemployer pensions of 1.3 million workers and retirees across the country. The 2008 financial crisis and a steady decrease in union jobs has put these pensions at risk, threatening to derail the safe and secure retirement that these workers spent decades paying into.

“If these pensions fail, too many hardworking Minnesotans will be thrown into instability and uncertainty through no fault of their own,” said Phillips. “Not only would it hurt workers, it would hurt their families - and it would hurt our entire state. Minnesotans know the importance of community and lifting each other up, which is why it was so important that we took action to save the pensions of more than 20,000 of our neighbors today. We need to keep working hard to make the Butch Lewis Act law and give these men and women the secure retirements they were promised – and have earned.”

The Butch Lewis Act would create a new office within the Treasury Department, which would be called the Pension Rehabilitation Administration (PRA). The Pension Rehabilitation Administration would allow pension plans to borrow the money they need to remain solvent and continue providing retirement security for retirees and workers for decades to come. 

Congressional inaction would cost taxpayers an estimated $170 billion and $240 billion over 10 years. This far exceeds the CBO’s $48.5 billion cost estimate of the Butch Lewis Act over 10 years. 

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