Lawmakers reintroduce bill to restore Delphi retirees' pension

Feb. 2—Four U.S. representatives are once again attempting to help salaried retired Delphi workers who lost a portion of their pensions.

Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, Dan Kildee, D-Michigan, Claudia Tenney, R-New York, and Gwen Moore, D-Wisconsin, reintroduced the Susan Muffley Act on Wednesday.

The legislation, if passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden, would restore salaried Delphi retirees' pensions for nearly 20,000 across the country, including more than 4,000 in Indiana and Howard County, as well as give them a lump-sum payment to cover the amount of money they lost since 2009 from their reduced payouts. The lump sum would come with 6% interest on top.

The Susan Muffley Act was introduced last year and passed the U.S. House of Representatives 254-175 in July 2022. It received support from Biden but was not heard and voted on or included in the year-end omnibus spending bill in the Senate and thus died.

Its supporters are hoping this year is different.

"We are just a few short senators away from getting this bill through the Senate. With the Delphi salaried retirees' advocacy, I believe that momentum will be on our side," Turner told The Detroit News this week. "We're going to work diligently to try to get this bill back out of the House again and over to the Senate, and then to try to persuade our fellow senators that this bill is paid for, this bill is rectifying an injustice, and these retirees earned these benefits."

Bruce Gump, chairman of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association, applauded the reintroduction of the legislation. The bill would be paid for not with taxpayer dollars but money within the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the government-owned pension insurer.

"Some have called the effort a bailout, but the retirees are only asking the federal government to restore their pensions," Gump said in a statement.

The salaried workers' pensions were cut by up to 70% when they were handed over to the U.S. Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation after General Motors filed for bankruptcy in 2009. However, GM's hourly retirees, who were represented by the United Auto Workers, did not have their pensions cut.

Congress did end up approving a special health tax credit for the salaried retirees, which in some cases paid up to 72% of their health care costs, but the loss of health care and life insurance benefits devastated many households, causing some to have to work longer.

For the last 14 years, the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association has been working to restore the salaried retirees' pension to no avail. The group turned to Congress after the U.S. Supreme Court a year ago declined to hear the group's case, letting stand a ruling by the Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upholding the government termination of the pension plans.

Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich.