WASHINGTON – A new report from the Inspector General of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) found that up to $250 million in taxpayer dollars will be returned to the American people as a result of the investigation efforts of U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. These tax dollars wrongfully paid for dead people on union pension fund rolls as part of Democrats’ $90 billion pension bailout. This is in addition to the $125 million in federal tax dollars Cassidy stopped from being wrongfully paid out, resulting in as much as $375 million saved for the American people since April 2024.
“This gross mismanagement should not surprise anyone. Rather than pursuing substantive reforms to at-risk pension funds, Democrats spent $90 billion of taxpayer funds on a bailout with no accountability,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Our oversight is not over. We need to ensure every dollar wrongfully paid out from the Democrats’ irresponsible bailout is returned to the American people. I look forward to working with the Trump administration and my colleagues in Congress to get it done.”
Initially, Cassidy secured the return of $127 million earlier this year that was wrongfully paid to the Central States Pension Fund following a report showing the plan included at least 3,479 dead participants in its bailout request. This is part of the estimated $250 million that was wrongfully paid out as part of the Democrats’ pension bailout.
Cassidy also introduced legislation that would require PBGC to verify past and future pension bailout applications by cross-checking plan participation lists against the Full Death Master File, ensuring taxpayer dollars are not paying pension bailouts to multiemployer pension plans for deceased individuals. It would further require the PBGC to recoup from multiemployer plans any “ghost pensions” the plans received as windfalls from taxpayer dollars.
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