26 U.S.C. § 432 — Additional funding rules for multiemployer plans in endangered status or critical status

(a) General rule This section adds funding rules for multiemployer pension plans that existed on July 16, 2006. What a plan must do depends on its status: - If the plan is in endangered status, its sponsor must adopt and carry out a funding improvement plan, following the rules in subsection (c). The rules in subsection (d) apply while the sponsor is working on that plan and while it is in effect. - If the plan is in critical status, its sponsor must adopt and carry out a rehabilitation plan, following the rules in subsection (e). The rules in subsection (f) apply while the sponsor is working on that plan and while it is in effect. - If the plan is in critical and declining status, the critical-status rules above still apply, and the sponsor may also amend the plan to suspend some benefits, following the rules in subsection (e)(9). - If the plan is applying for or receiving special financial assistance under section 4262 of ERISA, the rules in subsection (k) apply. (b) Determination of endangered and critical status This subsection tells the plan's actuary how to decide, each year, which status a plan is in. Endangered status. A plan is in endangered status for a year if the actuary determines it is not in critical status and does not qualify for the special exception in paragraph (5), and at the start of the year either: its funded percentage is below 80%, or it has an accumulated funding deficiency for the year, or is projected to have one within the next 6 years. If both of those funding problems are true at once, the plan is "seriously endangered." Critical status. A plan is in critical status for a year if the actuary determines, as of the start of the year, that it meets any one of four tests: - Test A: the plan's funded percentage is below 65%, and its assets plus expected employer contributions for the next 7 years fall short of the benefits it must pay over those same 7 years (plus administrative costs). - Test B: the plan already has an accumulated funding deficiency, or is projected to have one within the next 3 years (4 years if its funded percentage is 65% or below). - Test C: three things are all true at once — the plan's normal yearly cost plus interest on its unfunded liability is more than the contributions it expects to receive; the value of benefits owed to inactive participants is greater than the value owed to active participants; and the plan has, or is projected to have within 4 years, an accumulated funding deficiency. - Test D: the plan's assets plus expected employer contributions for the next 5 years fall short of all the benefits it must pay over those same 5 years (plus administrative costs). Annual certification. Each year, by the 90th day of the plan year, the plan's actuary must certify to the IRS and the plan sponsor whether the plan is endangered, critical now or within the next 5 years, or critical and declining — and, if the plan is already working through a funding improvement plan or rehabilitation plan, whether it is on schedule. In making these projections, the actuary must generally use its best estimate of what will really happen, based on the plan's most recent actuarial report, and must assume current collective-bargaining contribution levels will continue (or, if there has been no major change in the workforce, that the most recent year's contribution level will continue indefinitely). Projections about the plan's industry must rely on information the plan sponsor supplies in good faith. Some of these projection rules can be relaxed when the actuary is only checking whether the plan will become critical in a future year — except that a sponsor cannot use paragraph (4)'s early election to critical status based on a certification that ignored those rules. Special rules apply for projecting critical-and-declining status: the actuary must assume compliant employers keep following the rehabilitation schedule, and must account for any benefit suspensions already in effect. If the actuary fails to certify a plan's status on time, that failure is punished the same way as a plan administrator's failure to file its required annual report. If a plan is certified endangered or critical (or the sponsor elects critical status), the sponsor must notify participants, beneficiaries, the bargaining parties, the PBGC, and the Department of Labor within 30 days. For a critical-status plan, that notice must also warn that "adjustable benefits" may be cut, and that cuts could apply to people whose benefits start on or after the notice date. If a plan would be endangered except for the paragraph (5) exception, the sponsor must still tell the bargaining parties and PBGC that fact. The IRS must create a model notice plans can use. If the actuary certifies that a plan will become critical within the next 5 years (but is not critical yet) and the sponsor has not elected early critical status, the sponsor must notify the PBGC of that projection within 30 days. Election to be in critical status. A plan that is not yet critical, but that the actuary projects will become critical within 5 years, may have its sponsor elect critical status early, within 30 days of the certification. That election year then counts as the plan's first critical year, no matter when the plan actually would have met the critical-status tests. Once a plan is critical under this election, it can only emerge from critical status the way any other critical plan can, under subsection (e)(4)(B). Special rule (paragraph (5)). A plan escapes endangered status even if it would otherwise qualify, if: the actuary certifies, as part of the endangered-status certification, that the plan is projected to no longer meet either funding test in paragraph (1) by the end of the 10th plan year after the certification year, and the plan was not in critical or endangered status the year before. Critical and declining status. A critical-status plan is also "critical and declining" if it meets one of the critical-status tests (A) through (D) above, and is projected to run out of money (become insolvent, as section 418E defines it) within the next 14 years — or within 19 years if more than twice as many participants are inactive as active, or if its funded percentage is below 80%. Plans getting special financial assistance. If an eligible multiemployer plan is receiving special financial assistance under ERISA section 4262 and meets the conditions in subsection (k)(2), it is treated as being in critical status for every plan year from when the assistance takes effect through the last plan year ending in 2051 — regardless of what the tests above would otherwise say. (c) Funding improvement plan for plans in endangered status When a plan is in endangered status, the sponsor must adopt a funding improvement plan within 240 days after the deadline for the actuary's endangered-status certification. Within 30 days after adopting it, the sponsor must give the bargaining parties at least one schedule showing revised benefits, revised contributions, or both, that could reasonably help the plan meet its "applicable benchmarks" (the targets described below). At minimum the sponsor must offer: one proposal that cuts future benefit growth as much as needed, assuming no contribution increases beyond what is needed after cutting benefits as far as the law allows; and one proposal that raises contributions as much as needed, assuming no benefit cuts. The sponsor may also offer other alternative schedules or information if it chooses. This adoption requirement does not repeat every year — once a plan enters this process, later years covered by the same funding plan adoption period or funding improvement period skip it. The year that first triggers this process is called the "initial determination year." A funding improvement plan must be designed, using reasonable assumptions, to reach two goals by the end of the funding improvement period: the plan's funded percentage must rise to at least its starting percentage plus 33% of the gap between that starting percentage and 100%; and the plan must have no accumulated funding deficiency in the last year of the period. For a "seriously endangered" plan, that 33% figure drops to 20% unless the exception below applies. The funding improvement period is generally the 10 years starting at the beginning of the plan year after the earlier of: the 2nd anniversary of adopting the plan, or the expiration of collective bargaining agreements that, as of the certification deadline, covered at least 75% of active participants. For a seriously endangered plan, that period is 15 years instead of 10, unless the exception below applies. If the plan is later certified as no longer endangered and not critical, the adoption or improvement period ends immediately, at the close of the prior year. If it is later certified critical, that period ends at the close of the year before the rehabilitation period begins. If, right after the period ends, the plan is still endangered, the whole process starts over as if that year were a new initial determination year — but the plan cannot be amended inconsistently with the old funding improvement plan until a new one is adopted. Special rule for seriously endangered plans that were over 70% funded at the start: the milder 20%/15-year targets apply only if the actuary certifies, within 30 days of the initial certification, that the plan cannot otherwise meet the standard 33%/10-year targets. Even then, the milder targets apply only through the point when the relevant collective bargaining agreements expire — after that, the standard targets return, unless the actuary re-certifies that the plan still cannot meet them, in which case the milder targets continue. The sponsor must update the funding improvement plan and its contribution schedules every year, filing the update with the plan's annual report. A contribution schedule that bargaining parties relied on to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement stays in effect for that agreement's full term. If a collective bargaining agreement that covered the plan when it entered endangered status expires, and the bargaining parties do not adopt a schedule consistent with the funding improvement plan, the sponsor must impose the "cut future benefits" schedule described above, starting 180 days after the agreement expires. The same rule applies to later agreements that expire while the plan is still endangered, using the most recently updated schedule. The "funding plan adoption period" is the stretch of time from the initial certification date until the day before the funding improvement period begins. (d) Rules while a plan is in the funding-plan adoption or improvement period Once a funding improvement plan is adopted, the multiemployer plan cannot be amended in a way that conflicts with it. Benefits, including future benefit growth, cannot be increased either, unless the actuary certifies the increase is paid for with extra contributions the funding improvement plan did not already count on, and the plan is still expected to hit its targets on schedule even after the increase. During the earlier period — after the initial certification but before the funding improvement plan is adopted — the sponsor cannot accept any collective bargaining or participation agreement that cuts contribution levels, suspends contributions for any period, or newly excludes younger or newly hired employees from the plan. The plan also cannot be amended to increase its liabilities, through benefit increases, accrual changes, or faster vesting, unless the law requires that specific amendment. (e) Rehabilitation plan for plans in critical status When a plan is in critical status, the sponsor must adopt a rehabilitation plan within 240 days after the deadline for the actuary's critical-status certification. Within 30 days after adopting it, the sponsor must give bargaining parties one or more schedules of revised benefits, revised contributions, or both, that could reasonably help the plan emerge from critical status. The sponsor may also offer other information if helpful. These schedules must include cuts to future benefit accruals and "adjustable benefits," and contribution increases, that the sponsor decides are reasonably necessary to emerge from critical status. One schedule must be labeled the "default schedule" — it assumes no contribution increases beyond what is needed after future accruals and other cuttable benefits have been reduced to the legal maximum. As with the funding improvement plan, this requirement does not repeat once the plan is already in a rehabilitation plan adoption period or rehabilitation period; the triggering year is the "initial critical year." A rehabilitation plan must either: (i) lay out actions — possibly including plan mergers, spending cuts, benefit cuts, or agreed contribution increases — reasonably expected to get the plan out of critical status by the end of the rehabilitation period; or (ii) if the sponsor determines, after exhausting all reasonable measures, that the plan cannot reasonably be expected to emerge by then, lay out reasonable measures to emerge later or at least avoid insolvency, explaining why full emergence is not realistic and when, if ever, the plan expects to emerge. Either way, the plan must set annual standards for measuring progress. The sponsor must update the rehabilitation plan and its schedules yearly and file the updates with the annual report; an adopted schedule lasts as long as the collective bargaining agreement that relies on it. If a covered collective bargaining agreement expires and the bargaining parties do not adopt a compliant schedule, the sponsor must impose the default schedule, effective 180 days after the agreement expires — the same rule applies to later expiring agreements while the plan remains critical. The rehabilitation period is generally the 10 years starting after the earlier of the 2nd anniversary of adopting the plan, or the expiration of collective bargaining agreements covering at least 75% of active participants as of the certification deadline. If the plan emerges from critical status early, the period ends the year before emergence is determined. A plan emerges from critical status once the actuary certifies that: it no longer meets any of the four critical-status tests, it is not projected to have a funding deficiency in the current year or the next 9 years, and it is not projected to become insolvent within the next 30 years. A special, easier emergence rule applies to plans that got an automatic amortization extension under section 431(d)(1): those plans emerge once the actuary certifies they will not have a funding deficiency in the current or next 9 years, counting that extension, and will not become insolvent within 30 years — regardless of whether they would otherwise still count as critical. A plan that emerges this special way re-enters critical status if either of those two projections turns unfavorable again. The "rehabilitation plan adoption period" is the stretch from the initial critical-year certification to the day before the rehabilitation period begins. Under the default schedule, future benefit accrual rates can never be cut below whichever is lower: a monthly benefit equal to 1% of required contributions per participant, or the plan's equivalent standard accrual rate as of the start of the initial critical year, or the plan's accrual rate on that same date if lower still. The sponsor decides the "equivalent standard accrual rate" using representative contribution data and other relevant factors. The sponsor can still offer alternative schedules with higher or lower rates than this floor. Automatic employer surcharge. Every employer that owes contributions in the initial critical year must also pay a surcharge equal to 5% of its required contribution for that year. In each following year the plan stays continuously critical, the surcharge rises to 10%. Surcharges are due on the same schedule as the underlying contributions, and unpaid surcharges are treated and enforced just like delinquent contributions. The surcharge stops applying to employees under a collective bargaining agreement once that agreement adopts a compliant schedule. It does not apply to any employer until 30 days after the sponsor notifies that employer the plan is critical and the surcharge is in effect. Surcharge payments never count toward earning extra benefits. Benefit adjustments. The sponsor may cut "adjustable benefits" as it sees fit, based on how bargaining over the schedules goes — but only after giving the required notice below. It generally cannot cut adjustable benefits for anyone whose benefits already started before that notice went out, except for one narrow category described below. The sponsor must also build into its schedules a plan for funding, and if needed reducing, benefits of participants for whom no contributions are currently required. "Adjustable benefits" means: extra benefits and features like post-retirement death benefits, 60-month payment guarantees, and not-yet-payable disability benefits; early retirement subsidies and optional payment forms other than the standard joint-and-survivor annuity; and benefit increases adopted less than 60 months before the initial critical year began, because those increases would not be covered by PBGC's guarantee. Outside that last category, nothing here lets a plan cut the benefit level a participant is owed at normal retirement age. Before cutting any adjustable benefit, the sponsor must give at least 30 days' notice to participants and beneficiaries, every employer with a contribution obligation, and every union representing participants. The notice must explain, in an understandable way, how the cuts will affect each person's benefits, with an annual or monthly estimate, and must explain participants' rights and how to contact the Department of Labor. The IRS, with the Department of Labor, will publish rules on the notice's form and a model notice people can use; it must be understandable to an average plan participant, and can be delivered electronically if that is reasonably accessible to recipients. Benefit suspensions for critical-and-declining plans. If a plan is in critical and declining status, its sponsor may amend the plan to suspend benefits it deems appropriate — but only by following a long list of conditions. A "suspension" means any temporary or permanent cut to a payment the plan owes, whether or not it has already started. A suspension stays in effect until the sponsor restores benefits or the suspension expires on its own terms; the plan owes nothing for payments it skips this way. These suspension rules apply to beneficiaries and alternate payees the same as to participants. Large plans with 10,000 or more participants must appoint a "retiree representative" — a retired participant who advocates for retired and deferred-vested participants throughout the approval process — at least 60 days before applying to suspend benefits; the plan must cover that representative's reasonable expenses, including legal and actuarial help, and most of the representative's duties are exempted from ERISA's prohibited-transaction rules, except duties tied to the suspension application itself if the representative is also a plan trustee. A sponsor may only suspend benefits if: the plan's actuary certifies that, with the proposed suspensions and any related plan partition in place, the plan is projected to avoid insolvency, assuming the suspensions last until they expire, or indefinitely if no expiration is set; and the sponsor documents in writing, on an ongoing basis, that insolvency is still expected without the suspension even though the plan has taken and keeps taking every other reasonable step — weighing factors like past and current contribution levels, prior benefit or accrual cuts, prior suspensions, subsidies for active participants, participant pay levels compared to the industry, competitive pressures on employers, the effect of benefit and contribution levels on keeping employers and workers in the plan, and steps taken to attract or retain contributing employers. Any suspension is limited: no participant's monthly benefit can drop below 110% of what the PBGC itself would guarantee. Participants who are 75 or older when the suspension takes effect get extra protection — the fraction of their "maximum suspendable benefit" that can actually be cut shrinks the closer they are to 80, calculated as the number of months until they turn 80, divided by 60. Disability benefits can never be suspended. All suspensions together, combined with any plan partition, cannot be estimated to exceed materially what is needed to avoid insolvency, and if paired with a partition, the suspension cannot start before the partition does. Suspensions must be spread equitably across participants and beneficiaries, considering factors like age and life expectancy, how long someone has been receiving benefits, benefit amount and type, whether the benefit is subsidized, past increases, years until retirement for active workers, gaps between active and retiree benefits, and the risk that active participants will leave if the plan does not act. If some benefits are tied to an employer that withdrew without fully paying its withdrawal liability, those benefits must be cut first, to the extent possible, then other cuttable benefits generally, and only last, benefits tied to an employer that withdrew before the 2014 pension reform law, paid its withdrawal liability in full, and separately assumed responsibility for those benefits under its own single-employer plan. While a suspension is in effect, the sponsor may restore or improve benefits at its discretion — but generally cannot increase the plan's liabilities for anyone not yet receiving benefits unless it pairs that increase with an equally fair improvement for people already in pay status, and the actuary certifies the plan can still avoid insolvency indefinitely afterward. Improvements for people not yet in pay status cannot exceed, in value, the improvements given to people already in pay status; the sponsor must distribute the increase equitably using the same factors used for suspensions, and account for who had their benefits cut. If the sponsor wants to simply resume suspended benefits only for people already in pay status, it must distribute that resumption equitably among them, using the same factors. These distribution rules do not apply to increases the Treasury Secretary finds reasonable and only minor, or ones required by other law. "Benefit improvement" here means resuming suspended benefits, raising benefits, raising the accrual rate, or speeding up vesting. Before any suspension, the sponsor must give notice — at the same time it applies to the Treasury Secretary for approval — to participants and beneficiaries it can reasonably reach, contributing employers, and representing unions. The notice must include an individualized estimate of the effect on each person, the factors the sponsor considered, a statement that the application will be posted online for comment, participants' rights, information about any retiree representative, and contact information for the Treasury Department. Treasury will set rules for the notice's form, understandable to an average participant and deliverable electronically if reasonably accessible; this notice also satisfies the separate significant-reduction-in-benefits notice required under section 4980F, and Treasury must create a model notice. The Treasury Secretary, working with PBGC and the Department of Labor, must approve any suspension application that shows the plan is eligible and meets the conditions, limitations, notice, and improvement rules above. Within 30 days of getting an application, Treasury must publish notice in the Federal Register asking for comments, and post the application online. Treasury must approve or deny the application within 225 days, or it is automatically approved; a denial must explain specifically which requirements were not met. Treasury's decision counts as final agency action for court review purposes. When reviewing the sponsor's factor-weighing determination, Treasury must accept it unless it is clearly wrong. No suspension can take effect until plan participants vote on it. Within 30 days of Treasury's approval, Treasury must run that vote. The suspension takes effect unless a majority of all participants and beneficiaries — not just those who vote — reject it. Ballots must include a statement for the suspension, a statement against it built from public comments, confirmation of Treasury's approval, a statement that the plan will become insolvent without the suspension, and warnings that insolvency, for the plan or for PBGC itself, would mean lower benefits than the suspension provides. Congress expects sponsors to actively inform participants through meetings, calls, mail, or other outreach, depending on the plan's size and the participants' locations. If participants reject the suspension, Treasury has 14 days to decide whether the plan is "systemically important," meaning PBGC projects it would otherwise need more than $1 billion in financial assistance, a figure indexed to wage growth after 2015 and rounded down to the nearest million. If the plan is systemically important, Treasury may, within 90 days of the vote results, still allow the sponsor's original suspension or a modified version to take effect, as long as the modified version still avoids insolvency; the Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate may recommend changes within 30 days of that determination. Once a suspension is cleared to take effect, by vote or by the systemically-important process, Treasury must issue final authorization within 7 days of the vote, or in time to implement before the 90-day systemically-important window closes. Court challenges to a denied application can only be filed after the denial. Challenges to an approved suspension can only be filed after Treasury's final authorization, and courts review them under the standard federal administrative-law rules; a court can only block the suspension temporarily if it finds a clear and convincing likelihood the challenger will win. Participants have no separate ERISA lawsuit right over a suspension — only this specific review process — and any challenge must be filed within one year of when the plaintiff knew or should have known about it. A critical-and-declining plan that has suspended benefits under this paragraph cannot be certified as having emerged from critical status until it is no longer endangered or critical under the ordinary tests, and is projected to avoid insolvency. (f) Rules while a plan is in the rehabilitation-plan adoption or rehabilitation period Once a rehabilitation plan is adopted, the plan cannot be amended to conflict with it, and benefits cannot be increased unless the actuary certifies the increase is funded by extra contributions the rehabilitation plan did not count on and the plan can still emerge from critical status on schedule. Starting when the plan sends its critical-status notice for the initial critical year, the plan generally cannot pay: any lump sum or other payment bigger than a standard single life annuity would pay, plus certain Social Security supplements; any payment to buy an insurance company annuity; or any other payment type Treasury specifies by rule. Exceptions apply to small automatic cash-outs and to make-up payments for retroactive annuity start dates or similar catch-up payments. During the period between the initial critical-year certification and adopting a rehabilitation plan, the same restrictions as in subsection (d) apply: no accepting collective bargaining agreements that cut or suspend contributions or newly exclude younger or new employees, and no amendments raising plan liabilities except as legally required. (g) Certain adjustments ignored when calculating withdrawal liability Benefit cuts made under subsections (e)(8) or (f), and benefit cuts or suspensions made under (e)(9) while a plan is critical and declining, are ignored when figuring out a plan's unfunded vested benefits for purposes of an employer's withdrawal liability — unless the employer withdraws more than 10 years after the suspension took effect. Employer surcharges under (e)(7) are likewise ignored in allocating unfunded vested benefits and figuring the highest historical contribution rate, with narrow exceptions for certain allocation methods. Contribution rate increases required to meet a funding improvement or rehabilitation plan are also ignored for those same purposes, with any contribution increase presumed to be required by the plan unless it is actually due to more work being done or is used to fund a permitted benefit increase. This disregard stops applying once the collective bargaining agreement in effect when the plan emerges from endangered or critical status expires — except that, even after emergence, those increases stay disregarded for calculating the highest historical contribution rate for the years the plan was endangered or critical. The PBGC must create simplified methods for applying all of this when it calculates withdrawal liability and payments. (h) Faster resolution when the sponsor cannot agree If, 60 days after the deadline for adopting a funding improvement or rehabilitation plan, the plan's sponsor, a board or committee, still has not agreed on one, any member of that board or committee can force the group into an expedited dispute-resolution process to finish the plan. (i) Employees not covered by a union contract If an employer contributes to a plan for both unionized and non-unionized employees, and the plan is endangered or critical, the non-unionized employees' benefits, contributions, and surcharges are calculated as if they were covered by whichever of the employer's collective bargaining agreements expires first, measured from when the plan became endangered or critical. If an employer contributes only for non-unionized employees, this whole section treats that employer as if it were a bargaining party and its participation agreement as if it were a collective bargaining agreement, ending on the first day of the plan year after the employer gets its contribution schedule. (j) Definitions used in this section - "Bargaining party" means an employer that owes contributions to the plan, or, for certain employer-established plans under section 404(c), the employer association that set the plan up, plus any union that represents plan participants working for that employer. - "Funded percentage" means the plan's assets, valued under section 431(c)(2), divided by its accrued liability, valued under section 431(c)(3). - "Accumulated funding deficiency" has the same meaning as in section 431(a). - "Active participant" means someone currently doing work covered by the plan. - "Inactive participant" means someone not currently doing covered work, who is either already receiving benefits or has a vested right to them. - Someone is in "pay status" if, during the current plan year, they are a participant or beneficiary actually being paid a retirement or related death benefit, or, by Treasury rule, is entitled to one. - "Obligation to contribute" has the same meaning as in ERISA section 4212(a). - All calculations under this section must use the "unit credit" actuarial method, even if the plan normally uses a different one for its regular valuations. - "Plan sponsor" generally means the joint board, committee, or association of representatives that runs the multiemployer plan; for plans set up by an employer association under section 404(c), it means the bargaining parties described above instead. - "Benefit commencement date" means the date benefit payments start: the annuity starting date, or, for retroactive starts, the date payments actually begin. (k) Special rules for plans getting financial assistance under ERISA's rescue program This subsection covers "eligible multiemployer plans" applying for or receiving special financial assistance under section 4262 of ERISA. Applying for assistance. A plan's application must follow ERISA section 4262 and any PBGC guidance. If the plan previously suspended benefits under (e)(9), the application must explain how it will reinstate those benefits once assistance arrives. In calculating how much assistance to request, the plan generally must use the interest rate and other actuarial assumptions from its last certification completed before January 1, 2021, as long as that interest rate does not exceed a cap: the section 430(h) segment rate for the month of filing, or the prior 3 months, plus 2 percentage points. The plan may propose different assumptions if it discloses the change and explains why the old ones are no longer reasonable — but it cannot change the interest rate itself beyond what is described above. Plans applying under any temporary priority-consideration rules must also submit their application to the IRS, not just PBGC. Receiving assistance. Once a plan gets special financial assistance, it must reinstate any benefits it suspended, under (e)(9) or under ERISA's insolvent-plan rules, effective the first month assistance takes effect, for anyone in the plan that month. It must also pay back, to anyone already receiving reduced benefits, the amount they lost — either as a lump sum within 3 months, or as equal monthly installments over 5 years starting within 3 months, with no interest added. The assistance money can only be used for benefit payments and plan expenses; it must be kept separate from other plan assets and invested in investment-grade bonds or other PBGC-approved investments. PBGC, working with the IRS, may set reasonable conditions on things like future benefit accrual increases, retroactive benefit improvements, how assets are allocated, cuts to employer contribution rates, shifting money or expenses to other benefit plans, and withdrawal liability — but PBGC cannot impose conditions touching future benefit cuts, plan governance such as who serves as trustee or which service providers the plan uses, or the plan's funding rules generally. The assistance itself does not count toward the contributions required under section 431's funding rules, and if the plan becomes insolvent anyway after getting assistance, it is still subject to all the usual insolvent-plan rules. A plan that receives this assistance can no longer apply for a new benefit suspension under (e)(9)(G). Which plans qualify. A multiemployer plan is "eligible" for this assistance if any one of these is true: it was in critical-and-declining status in any year from 2020 through 2022; it already had an approved benefit suspension under (e)(9) as of the date this provision became law; in any year from 2020 through 2022 it was certified critical, had a "modified funded percentage" below 40%, and had fewer than 2 active participants for every 3 inactive ones; or it became insolvent, under section 418E, after December 16, 2014, has stayed insolvent, and has not yet been terminated. "Modified funded percentage" means the plan's current assets, as ERISA defines them, divided by its current liabilities, as section 431(c)(6)(D) defines them. Coordination between agencies. When PBGC sets up and reviews applications for this assistance, it must work with the IRS: for plans that already suspended benefits, PBGC must consult the IRS about how the plan plans to restore those benefits, and about how much assistance the plan needs, considering the plan's projected funded status through 2051, whether it is repaying over 5 years or as a lump sum, and other relevant factors, to make sure the assistance is enough to meet these requirements. For any plan proposing to change its actuarial assumptions, PBGC must consult the IRS about that proposed change. If PBGC creates rules giving some plans, such as insolvent or benefit-suspended plans, priority processing based on funded status, PBGC must consult the IRS about granting that priority.