The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would fund the U.S. government for the rest of fiscal 2014 and let Congress avoid the risk of a shutdown until the end of September. Members voted 359-67 to pass the bill, which was opposed by 64 Republicans and three Democrats.

We have received a number of questions asking if there are any implications on our PBGC benefits as a result of the provision in the recently passed Omnibus Spending Bill affecting multi-employer pension plans.

The Omnibus Spending Bill does not give the PBGC authority to cut retirement benefits they currently oversee. The change applies only to still functioning multi-employer pension plans, where a group of businesses in the same industry join forces with a union to provide pension coverage for employees. Some of these plans are in danger of running out of money and the PBGC has warned that if these big plans fail it could cause the PBGC safety net for multi-employer plans to fail.

Our United pension plan that was taken over by the PBGC is a single employer plan covered by a separate PBGC insurance fund that according to the PBGC annual report is in much better financial shape.

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