By: Russ Kamp, Managing Director, Ryan ALM, Inc.

Welcome to the week before Memorial Day weekend. I hope that your plans are coming together nicely. As of right now, the weather in NJ is looking nearly perfect with no rain in the forecast until Tuesday. What are the odds that we get so lucky?

With regard to the implementation of the ARPA pension legislation by the PBGC, there was a little activity last week, as the Pension Plan Private Sanitation Union, Local 813 I.B. of T, a non-priority plan, submitted its initial application seeking just under $100 million in SFA for the 3,349 participants in the plan. This Long Island City, NY pension plan joins 12 other non-priority applicants seeking financial assistance. In total, there are currently 21 applications under review with potentially another 88 to go. What an effort being put forward by the PBGC.

Based on the info above, one can surmise that there were no applications denied or approved. There were no new applicants added to the waitlist or those currently under review withdrawn. Lastly, there were no plans asked to repay a portion of their grant received, leaving Central States as the only plan to date to rebate excess proceeds due to an incorrect population survey.