The Biden administration faces a new congressional investigation after an agency that distributed tens of billions of dollars from the America’s Rescue Plan failed to prevent $127 million from going to deceased participants in the Teamsters’ pension fund.
The House Education and Workforce Committee sent a letter on Tuesday to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), demanding records related to the agency’s “mismanagement” and “overpayments” to union pension plans, according to a copy of the official letter obtained exclusively by the Post. .
“As part of this investigation, the Committee requested documents and information related to the PBGC’s payment of these payments and its plans to recover these significant taxpayer funds,” Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Chair of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pension. Bob Good (R-Va.) wrote.
“Taxpayers have the right to expect agencies like the PBGC to take the necessary steps to ensure their funds are protected and spent wisely. On the other hand, PBGC’s reckless actions against prudential measures are a case study of waste and abuse. The Committee intends to conduct robust oversight of PBGC’s negligence, including possible testimony before the Committee.”
House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) is investigating the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) “overpayment” to the Teamsters’ pension plan. CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images
A Nov. 1 memo from the PBGC’s Office of Inspector General found the International Brotherhood of Teamsters pension fund received money for 3,479 dead members from the $35.8 billion allocated from President Biden’s 2021 American Rescue Plan.
Federal auditors revealed that the PBGC failed to consult the Social Security Administration’s Full Death Master File (DMF) before distributing dollars to the Teamsters Central National Pension Fund, which includes nearly 350,000 members and is one of the nation’s largest multiemployer plans.
The Biden administration distributed tens of billions of dollars to the agency through the American Rescue Plan — but it failed to prevent $127 million from going to the deceased Teamsters fund. Reuters
The agency blamed “limitations” of some of its vendors’ accuracy for the flub in a Nov. 2 statement responding to the memo — and said it would not try to recover any funds because none were paid directly to individual pensions.
“As of 2018, the PBGC OIG has instructed the PBGC that using the DMF is essential to avoid overpayments resulting from annuity funding for deceased persons,” Foxx and Good said in their Jan. 16 letter.
“PBGC’s failure to include DMF is inexcusable.”
The PBGC’s Office of Inspector General found that the Central National Pension Fund received money for 3,479 members who died from the $35.8 billion allocated from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. AP
“Remarkably, in its response to the report, the PBGC asserted that these payments ‘should not be subject to recovery action,'” they added.
“In the same vein, the Central National Pension Fund claims it does not owe or intend to repay these taxpayer dollars. By all appearances, the PBGC intends to divert taxpayer money to the Central National Pension Fund in the case of an unauthorized windfall and refuses to get this money back.”
In a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on November 14, International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien told lawmakers that he “assumes” the government will recover any misappropriated funds.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien told lawmakers he “assumes” the government will recover any misappropriated funds. Reuters
“I would say that if someone is given something they are not entitled to, they should pay it back,” O’Brien added.
Foxx and Good also said the “mismanagement casts doubt on the PBGC’s implementation of a larger program, the $91 billion Special Financial Assistance (SFA) program,” saying Central States had sent a follow-up letter to the inspector general’s office suggesting it would use the money “as their private slush fund” to help it “achieve its statutory objective of remaining solvent until 2051.”
Inspector General Nicholas Novak previously told The Post that there is no clawback function available to the PBGC as part of the America’s Rescue Plan, in which the Biden administration provided more than $80 billion to other multiemployer pension funds.
The panel members have asked for documents and answers to their questions on the matter to be returned by Jan 30.
A PGBC spokesperson previously denied that the agency “improperly” paid any funds to the pension plan and that none of the deceased participants were immediate beneficiaries.
A representative for the PBGC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
