WARREN — A bill that would have restored retirement benefits to more than 20,000 Delphi salaried retirees failed to attract bipartisan support in the Senate as the 117th Congress comes to a close, forcing the organization that represents those workers to consider its next steps.

In 2009, more than 20,000 Delphi salaried retirees, including thousands from the Valley, lost portions of their retirement benefits when the former auto parts maker went bankrupt.

The Susan Muffley Act — legislation that would have restored lost benefits for the thousands of Delphi salaried retirees — will not be included in the Omnibus spending after negotiations in the Senate on Monday failed to persuade some Republican lawmakers to support the legislation.

“This is a terrible blow to retirees who worked hard and played by the rules,” Bruce Gump, board chairman of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association, said in a statement. “Many lost up to 70 percent of their active or promised pensions. They had no representation during the government-directed pension termination in 2009.”

Republicans in the Senate and House opposed the bills because they said, in part, it creates bad precedent that other plans controlled by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation would follow.

Supporters, meanwhile, say the bill is about fairness and restoring the retirement benefits the salaried retirees rightfully earned.

Gump said the termination of the Delphi salaried pension plan was unique in that it came about by direction of the U.S. Treasury, not normal procedures through the PBGC. He said this is not a partisan issue, but a matter of right versus wrong.

HOUSE EFFORT

Delphi had surrendered its pension obligations to the PBGC — the insurer of last resort for the nation’s private retirement plans. While in its own government-planned bankruptcy in 2009, it was determined General Motors would fully fund union pensions for Delphi hourly employees.

The salaried retirees weren’t as fortunate and have argued their pensions should have been covered as well.

In May, House members voted 254-175 in favor of the bill that would require the PBGC to make up the difference between the partial retirement benefits already paid retirees and what they originally were due in one lump sum.

The retirees also would receive 6 percent interest on the retroactive pay to help ease the tax burden. Then, moving forward, the retirees would receive their full pensions as if they never were disrupted.

“Despite our best efforts since House passage in July — and that includes nearly 100,000 emails, phone calls and meetings with Senate members or staffers — it appears opponents failed to understand this was not a bailout,” Gump said. “The government took away our pension money in 2009. They invested it and made a lot of money on our assets over the past 13 years.”

SUPREME COURT

The salaried retirees previously took the matter to court and, for 13 years, fought to win back the pensions. That ended in January when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider their case, leaving Congress as the primary avenue for redress.

Gump said Delphi Salaried Retirees Association is considering its next steps, including possibly reintroducing the Susan Muffley Act next Congress, whose first legislative session begins Jan. 3.

He expressed gratitude toward some lawmakers who he said chose to work in a bipartisan manner in an attempt to remedy the “13-year pension nightmare,” including Ohio senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman and Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton.

In early August, Brown, a Democrat, brought the act to the Senate floor, seeking unanimous consent — a process that expedites the course of the legislation. He was unsuccessful when Republicans blocked his attempt despite some GOP support, including from Portman, a Republican.

Then, Brown took another legislative approach in October, attaching the act as an amendment to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. The act did not make it as a part of the NDAA.

escott@tribtoday.com