Our Work

The NCCMP fought for, and secured, the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) program’s inclusion in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) of 2021. Congress must maintain it. SFA helped distressed plans pay full benefits to over 1.7 million working Americans whose benefits would have been reduced by 52% on average. As of October 2026, 170 plans had received more than $78.1 billion in benefits they wouldn't have received without SFA. Further, ARP prevented the insolvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC’s) Multiemployer Guaranty Fund. We remind Congress at every opportunity how instrumental SFA has been in restoring plans, stabilizing the system, and preventing the loss of hard-earned pension benefits.

For details about SFA applications, visit the PBGC website.

As lawmakers and regulators consider the future of retirement security, it’s essential that multiemployer pension plans have a place in the legislative conversation. Multiemployer plans operate in unique ways and are a lifeline for millions of hardworking Americans across industries, representing decades of labor, sacrifice, and partnership. Understanding multiemployer plans and ensuring their stability and sustainability is both a policy choice and a promise kept to workers and retirees.

Withdrawal liability protects the solvency of multiemployer pension plans by ensuring that employers who exit don’t leave others responsible for their share of unfunded obligations—safeguarding the benefits promised to workers and retirees. However, a one-size-fits-all approach to withdrawal liability creates unintended burdens and disincentivizes participation. Each plan operates under unique financial, demographic, and industry conditions. Trustees, unions, and employers are best positioned to tailor withdrawal provisions that align with their plan’s funding status, workforce trends, and long-term goals consistent with Congress’s intent in the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980.

The NCCMP supports Congress’ intent behind the No Surprises Act: to shield patients from billing disputes between providers and health plans and protect health care consumers from unexpected medical bills. While the law has largely succeeded in preventing balance billing for emergency services, it revealed serious shortcomings in the Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process that increase costs for health plans—costs ultimately passed along to workers and their families.

We advocate for legislative and regulatory solutions during IDR that level the playing field for multiemployer plans and participants by grounding payment determinations in reasonable, regional, in-network rates that reflect real-world market costs for care, rather than arbitrary provider demands, and opposing unfair fines and penalties on plans.

Multiemployer plans need clear, easy to follow guidance to meet mental health parity rules, especially when comparing how their prior authorization and medical management processes differ between mental health and medical benefits. The NCCMP advocates for stronger tools and streamlined compliance steps to help plans stay aligned with evolving federal requirements. 

Over 170 million Americans have employment-based health insurance. Currently, premiums for those plans are excluded from federal income and payroll taxes. The NCCMP has consistently opposed efforts to tax employment-based health care, which would substantially increase costs for working families, drive up the already significant subsidy that employer-based health insurance provides to Medicare and Medicaid, and render coverage unaffordable for millions of people.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act has cost millions of Americans their Medicaid coverage, and the lapse of subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act will make health care unaffordable for millions more. NCCMP has examined the potential impact of these cuts both on individual plans and on health care providers and provided feedback to federal policymakers about the consequences of health care disinvestment.

ERISA preempts states from imposing conflicting or duplicative regulations on employment-based health and retirement plans. Without it, participants and employers could face rising costs and compliance challenges that threaten the quality and availability of benefits for workers nationwide.

Multiemployer plans rely on clear, conflict-free information to meet their fiduciary duties and to secure affordable, high-quality prescription drug benefits for working families. Transparency in PBM pricing and compensation, without hidden costs, is essential so that trustees can make apples-to-apples comparisons across service providers. Strengthening disclosure requirements empowers multiemployer plans to protect participants and keep prescription drug costs in check. 

Helping working people save for retirement is a laudable goal, and the intentions behind auto-enrollment provisions under the SECURE 2.0 Act are pure. However, the auto-enrollment provision is uniquely burdensome to multiemployer plans. The NCCMP works to carve multiemployer plans out of the auto-enrollment provision to keep plan administration consistent across contributing employers. Further, we call for clear rules that recognize different needs from jointly trusteed plans.