Peters Statement on Treasury Department Rejection of Central States Pension Fund Plan

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) today released the following statement in response to the U.S. Treasury Department’s rejection of an application from the Board of Trustees of the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan (Central States Plan) to enact drastic pension cuts for thousands of retirees:

“The deep pension cuts proposed by the Central States Plan would have caused devastating financial hardship for thousands of retirees in Michigan and across the country who rely on their hard-earned pensions to pay for food, housing and medicine. I am pleased the Treasury Department rejected this application, which would have unfairly jeopardized benefits promised to retirees who earned them over a lifetime of work as part of their pay.

“I am committed to protecting the pensions that Michigan workers have earned over their entire working lives and will be looking at legislative options to protect workers, retirees and their families from drastic and unfair pension cuts in this plan and others.”

Earlier this year, Peters led his colleagues in a bipartisan letter urging the U.S. Treasury Department to use their authority to protect retiree pensions. The Central States Plan application rejected by the U.S. Treasury Department would cut pension benefits by as much as 50 to 70 percent. There are 24,000 Central State Plan members in Michigan and over 200,000 members across the country, who will face an uncertain financial future if these benefits are cut.

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