House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) introduced the Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021(EPPRA) on January 21, 2021. EPPRA represents the latest legislative attempt to address the well-documented multiemployer pension crisis. We are told that there are similar elements in this legislation to those which were included in the Butch Lewis Act (BLA), but it is not a clone. For example, we do not see the Federal loan that was the central point of the BLA that defeased and secured Retired Lives. We, at Ryan ALM, thought that the BLA was an excellent piece of legislation. Let’s hope that a proposed bill (BLA or EPPRA) actually sees the light of day in the Senate, as time is getting short for both troubled plans and the participants who continue to count on their promised benefits. We will get back to our blog followers with more details as they become known to us.