Pension Relief Plan in COVID-19 Stimulus Bill

An ai-cio.com article summarized relief for union plans thusly:

Under the bill, multiemployer pension plans in danger of insolvency are eligible to receive a single lump sum to make benefit payments for the next 30 years, or through 2051.

How much of a single lump sum? Would this be a forgiven loan? Would it be a reward for the worst funders? Could NFL players share in the bailout if they rejigger some assumptions?

Only clues I could find were form the Congressional Research Service (with my emphasis):

Section 9704 would establish a fund within the PBGC and appropriate amounts as necessary to provide special financial assistance to certain multiemployer DB plans. The special financial assistance would not have to be repaid.

A plan could apply for special financial assistance through December 31, 2025. A plan would be eligible if it meets at least one of the following conditions:

• was in critical and declining status in any plan year from 2020 through 2022
• had an application to suspend benefits under MPRA approved prior to the enactment of this bill
• was in critical status in any year from 2020 through 2022 and had a modified funded percentage of less than 40% and the percentage of active to inactive participants in the plan was less than 40%
• became insolvent after December 14, 2014 and was not terminated by the date of enactment

Under the bill, PBGC would be authorized to issue regulations specifying that for two years following enactment only plans meeting certain conditions would be able to apply for special financial assistance. The plans would be those likely to become insolvent within five years of enactment, those for which PBGC would be obligated to provide more than $1 billion in financial assistance in the absence of any special financial assistance, those that have reduced benefits under MPRA, or those meeting other conditions as determined by PBGC.

The amount of special financial assistance would be the amount needed to pay participants’ full plan benefits through the 2051 plan year. To determine the present value of benefits, the plan would use the interest rate used in its most recent zone certification before January 1, 2021, subject to a maximum limit. The limit would be the interest rate used by single-employer DB pension plans to discount their benefits to be paid 20 years or more in the future (referred to as the third segment rate in Title 26, Section 430(h)(2)(C)(iii), of the U.S. Code) prior to adjustment for the smoothing corridor in the month (or preceding three months) of the application,increased by two percentage points. In January 2021, the third segment rate was 3.65%, so the limit would have been 3.65% + 2.0% = 5.65%. In 2017 (the most recent year for which the data is available), the median interest rate multiemployer plans used to value benefit obligations was 7.0%. Using different interest rates would result in differing amounts of financial assistance. The special financial assistance would be paid to the plan as a lump sum, would be kept separate from other plan assets, and could be invested only in investment grade bonds or other securities as determined by PBGC.

Participants’ benefits are not subject to the PBGC maximum guarantee.