29 U.S.C. § 1305 — Pension benefit guaranty funds

(a) Four initial funds. The Treasury must keep four revolving funds for the corporation to perform its duties under this subchapter. One fund covers basic benefits guaranteed under section 1322; one covers basic benefits guaranteed under section 1322a; one covers any nonbasic benefits guaranteed under section 1322; and the fourth covers any nonbasic benefits guaranteed under section 1322a, other than any benefits under subsection (g)(2). When this subchapter says “fund,” it means the appropriate fund created here. (b) Credits, availability, and investment. (1) Each fund must receive its proper share of: (A) premiums, penalties, interest, and charges collected under this subchapter; (B) plan assets held by a trustee under section 1342 that exceed the plan’s liabilities; (C) employer-liability payments under subtitle D that exceed the plan’s liabilities after all other plan assets are counted; (D) investment earnings of the fund or of assets credited to it; (E) attorney fees awarded to the corporation; and (F) receipts from other operations under this subchapter. (2) Subject to subsection (a), each fund may be used: (A) for payments the corporation decides are needed for benefits guaranteed under section 1322 or 1322a, or benefits payable under section 1350; (B) to buy assets from a plan the corporation is terminating when the corporation decides the purchase best protects the corporation, participants in that plan, and other insured plans; (C) for the corporation’s operating and administrative expenses, including reimbursing the Treasury Department for maintaining the funds and the Comptroller General for auditing the corporation; and (D) to pay participants and beneficiaries the estimated guaranteed benefits and the estimated other benefits allocated to plan assets under section 1344, for single-employer plans that cannot pay benefits when due or have been abandoned. (3)(A) If the corporation decides a fund has more money than currently needed, it may ask the Treasury Secretary to invest amounts the corporation considers advisable in United States obligations issued or guaranteed by the United States. (B) Despite subparagraph (A), for the fund used for basic benefits under section 1322a, premiums received under section 1306 during fiscal years 2016 through 2020 must be put into a noninterest-bearing account in these amounts: 2016, $108 million; 2017, $111 million; 2018, $113 million; 2019, $149 million; and 2020, $296 million. Premiums from those years must be allocated first to that account up to the specified amount and then to other accounts in the fund. Financial assistance under section 1431 must be withdrawn proportionately from the noninterest-bearing and other accounts. (c) Repealed. Pub. L. 112–141, div. D, title II, § 40234(a), July 6, 2012, 126 Stat. 858. (d) Fifth fund. (1) A fifth fund must be established to reimburse uncollectible withdrawal liability under section 1402. It receives its proper share of premiums, penalties, and interest charges under this subchapter, and investment earnings or earnings on assets credited to it. It may pay the supplemental program under section 1402, including expenses and other charges the corporation considers appropriate. (2) The corporation may invest this fund in obligations it considers appropriate. (e) Sixth fund. (1) A sixth fund must be established for the supplemental benefit guarantee program under section 1322a(g)(2). (2) It receives its proper share of premiums, penalties, and interest charges collected under section 1322a(g)(2), and investment earnings or earnings on assets credited to it. It may pay that supplemental program, including expenses and other charges the corporation considers appropriate. (3) The corporation may invest it in obligations it considers appropriate. (f) Seventh fund. (1) A seventh fund must receive: (A) premiums, penalties, and interest charges under section 1306(a)(3)(A)(i), except amounts described in subparagraph (B), to the extent they come from premiums above $8.50; (B) premiums, penalties, and interest charges under section 1306(a)(3)(E); and (C) investment earnings or earnings on credited assets. (2) It may transfer money to other funds for single-employer plans. It may not pay the corporation’s administrative costs or benefits under a plan terminated before October 1, 1988, unless no other money is available. (3) The corporation may invest it in obligations it considers appropriate. (g) Other use and repayments. (1) Money in a fund may be used only for that fund’s purposes. It may not be loaned to, or for, another fund or used to finance another corporation activity. (2) A repayment to the corporation of money paid from a fund for a multiemployer plan must be deposited back into that fund. (h) Voting stock paid as liability. Stock in a person liable to the corporation under this subchapter, when paid to the corporation by that person or a member of that person’s controlled group to satisfy the liability, may be voted only by the corporation’s custodial trustees or outside money managers. (i) Eighth fund. (1) An eighth fund must be established for special financial assistance to multiemployer pension plans under section 1432 and for the corporation’s necessary administrative and operating expenses related to that assistance. (2) The general fund is appropriated for the necessary costs of that assistance and those expenses. The eighth fund receives amounts transferred from the Treasury’s general fund as the Treasury Secretary and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Director jointly consider appropriate. No transfer may occur after September 30, 2030.