H.R. 397, Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act of 2019

The bill would

• Establish a new agency, the Pension Rehabilitation Administration (PRA), to provide loans to some multiemployer defined benefit pension plans that are financially troubled
• Appropriate funds to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to provide grants to some plans that receive loans
• Impose a private-sector mandate by requiring certain pension plans to apply for loans

Estimated budgetary effects would primarily stem from

• The cost of loans made to certain pension plans
• Grants to most plans that receive loans
• Provisions that would increase revenues, including modifying the required distribution rules for certain tax-favored assets

Areas of significant uncertainty include

• Predicting the long-term financial positions for the multiemployer plans that would receive loans and grants
• Predicting how lenient the PRA would be in forgiving loans
• Predicting the assumptions about plans’ financial positions used in plan applications