DAYTON, OH — Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Congressman Mike Turner (R-OH-10), held a press conference to highlight their efforts to restore pension payments that over 20,000 Delphi salaried retirees should have received when General Motors filed for bankruptcy during the Great Recession. The U.S. Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) assumed responsibility for the terminated benefits but could not pay an individual more than a statutory maximum benefit. Therefore, retirees experienced significant losses to their benefits, affecting 20,000 Delphi Salaried Retirees, including more than 5,000 retirees in Ohio.
Last July, Brown introduced the Susan Muffley Act, bipartisan legislation to restore these retirement benefits. Turner introduced companion legislation in February that passed the House of Representatives last Congress.
“Retired Delphi salaried workers lost the retirement they earned, after their company went bankrupt during the Great Recession – when Washington bailed out Wall Street, but left too many Americans on their own,” said Brown. “For years, we’ve been fighting to make this right. The Susan Muffley Act is the bipartisan solution Delphi workers deserve, and I will use every tool available to get it done to restore full retirement benefits for the more than 5,000 Ohioans who earned these pensions over a lifetime of work.”
“In the last Congress, we passed a bill out of the House that would restore the pensions, and it is our hope to build momentum for this bill in the Senate,” said Turner. “We are sitting with an injustice that has been going on for over a decade. The House has answered that it supports the restoration of the pensions. The administration is in support of the restoration of the pensions. We need to hold the administration accountable for this and move the Senate.”
This legislation—supported by Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives—would restore the terminated pensions. This bill would make up the difference between the pension benefits earned by Delphi Salaried Retirees and what they have received following the GM bankruptcy in 2009. This means beneficiaries already receiving benefits will receive a lump sum payment of the difference between what was actually paid by PBGC and what would have been paid without the limitations, plus interest. Retirees may pay income taxes on this lump sum over three years to ease the tax burden. All beneficiaries will receive their full earned benefit amount moving forward.
For over a decade, the Delphi Salaried Retirees have been fighting to restore their benefits. In September 2009, the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association (DSRA) filed a lawsuit against the PBGC to restore their pension benefits. After losing decisions at lower courts, the DSRA petitioned to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in January 2022. Congressional action is now the only option for restoring their pensions.
The legislation is named after Susan Muffley, who was part of the DSRA’s core leadership in the effort to restore their pensions. Her husband, David, worked at Delphi as an electronics technician for 31 years, but lost the full value of his pension in 2009. Despite health problems, Susan avoided seeing her doctor given her family’s financial constraints due to losing their pension. She was ultimately diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away on August 9, 2012.
For years, Brown has led the fight in Congress to restore pensions for Delphi Salaried Retirees, working across the aisle and pressing administration officials from both parties to do the right thing. He has also led the fight in Congress to continue the Health Coverage Tax Credit, which the Delphi Retirees rely on to help pay their health insurance premiums.
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