Before this week, there had been some cautious optimism that the bill would see Senate passage after the House approved it this summer.
In July, the House approved the “Susan Muffley Act” in a bipartisan 254-to-175 vote. That bill, which would have restored the salaried retirees’ full pensions, stalled in the Senate after an Idaho senator objected for apparent procedural reasons.
Turner’s office said earlier this month he was working with colleagues to have Congress send the legislation to President Biden, who had said he would sign it into law.
Without Senate approval, the measure is back to square one, legislatively speaking. Without a positive Senate vote, “Then this (House passage) doesn’t matter,” Turner told Delphi retirees at Sinclair Community College in a September rally. “It’s like an Etch-a-Sketch.”
“We have one hurdle remaining,” Tom Rose, a Delphi retired manager who lives in Washington Twp., said in September.
Salaried retirees from a then-bankrupt Delphi saw their pensions diminished greatly when the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. assumed control of the company’s pensions in 2009, reduced by up to 70% in some cases, all while General Motors, Delphi’s former owner, continued to support the pensions of hourly, union-represented Delphi workers.
The omnibus legislation includes $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs and $858 billion in defense funding, according to a bill summary.
The PBGC’s takeover of the pensions affected more than 20,000 salaried retirees nationwide — including over 5,000 in Ohio, according to the lawmakers.
About the Author
