House GOP threatens subpoenas in probe of $127M paid to dead Teamsters’ pension plan

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By Josh Christenson

House Republicans are leaning on a federal agency that has “made no attempt to explain” overpaying $127 million to dead participants in a Teamsters’ pension plan, according to a letter exclusively obtained by The Post.

House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) on Monday accused the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) of a “grave lapse in judgment” and failure to “respond in a forthright manner” to an inquiry about the overpayments.

Foxx and Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Chairman Bob Good (R-Va.) wrote that the PBGC had “made no attempt to explain how it justifies making payments beyond the amount authorized under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) or why it is failing to take any steps to recoup those overpayments.”

The lawmakers want a full response to their inquiries by March 4 — or they say they will be forced to take “compulsory action” against the agency to obtain the information.

Foxx has also introduced a bill, the Ghost Handouts and Overpayments Stop Today (GHOST) Act, “to ensure PBGC meets its obligation to reclaim any overpayment it made” as part of the Special Financial Assistance program for retirement benefits, which received a total of $91 billion from the 2021 American Rescue Plan.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the ranking member of the upper chamber’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, also sent a letter on Monday to the PBGC demanding the agency return the $127 million in taxpayer funding for 3,479 dead participants.

In November, the PBGC’s Office of Inspector General found that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ pension plan, known as the Central States Pension Fund, made the wrongful payments after getting $35.8 billion total in funding from the legislation signed into law by President Biden.

The federal watchdog’s office revealed the agency had failed to consult the Social Security Administration’s Full Death Master File before making the payments to the Teamsters’ pension fund, which serves 350,000 members and is one of the largest multiemployer plans in the nation.

The PBGC has said it won’t try to recoup any of the excess funding because none was paid to individual members — and there had been “limitations” on the accuracy of vendors relied upon for enrollment numbers.

Foxx and Good wrote in a Jan. 16 letter that they were concerned that Central States was instead preparing to use the excess money “as their personal slush fund” to “achieve its statutory objective of remaining solvent through 2051.”

Foxx, Good and Cassidy have pointed out that the inspector general had urged the PBGC since 2018 to consult the SSA’s master death file to prevent overpayments to deceased pension fund participants.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters president Sean O’Brien also called on the agency to “refund” the payments in a Nov. 14, 2023, Senate HELP Committee hearing.

“All PBGC SFA approvals made after November 1, 2023, incorporate the results of the expanded Social Security Administration Death Master File cross-checking of the plan’s census data,” the agency said in a statement.

“With respect to SFA approvals made before that date, PBGC supports repayment of any material SFA amount that was paid based on inaccurate census data and continues to explore any potential mechanism for recovery with executive branch partners, including the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. PBGC would also support legislation to enhance its recovery authorities for the SFA program.”