White House Seeks $1B to Restore Delphi Pensions

President Donald Trump’s administration is asking Congress to approve $1 billion to restore pension benefits for thousands of former Delphi Corp. salaried retirees, reopening one of the most enduring disputes to emerge from the federal government’s rescue of General Motors Co. and the auto industry more than 15 years ago.

The request, included in an $87.6 billion supplemental appropriations package sent Tuesday to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, by the Office of Management and Budget, would increase pension benefits for participants in Delphi-sponsored plans that were terminated during GM’s 2009 bankruptcy.

The proposal places the pension issue alongside requests for military funding related to recent operations against Iran; Ebola response efforts in Central Africa; disaster aid for farmers; and several domestic infrastructure initiatives, including the measure as part of a broader package of urgent national priorities.

For Delphi retirees, however, the request represents something else: the latest opportunity to reverse pension reductions that many have spent years arguing were unfairly imposed after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation assumed responsibility for the company’s plans during the financial crisis.

The dispute dates to the 2005 collapse of Delphi, a former supplier of parts to General Motors whose pension plans became entangled in GM’s government-backed restructuring. While some union hourly workers’ pensions were protected in a deal GM made when it spun off the company in 1999, many salaried retirees saw their monthly benefits reduced after the plans were terminated and transferred to the PBGC. Salaried retirees have long maintained that their benefits were capped at the PBGC statutory maximum, which reduced benefits they had earned over years of service.

Most of the affected retirees had been participants in the Delphi Retirement Program for Salaried Employees, which had 20,000 participants in 2009, according to information from the Congressional Research Service.

Retirees’ efforts to overturn the pension termination through the courts ultimately failed. Federal appeals judges ruled that the PBGC acted within its statutory authority, and the Supreme Court declined in 2022 to hear the retirees’ appeal, effectively ending more than a decade of litigation.

Legislative efforts have also repeatedly stalled despite bipartisan sponsorship. Bills introduced in recent congressional sessions sought to restore full benefits and compensate retirees for years of reduced payments, but none became law.

Embedding the efforts on behalf of Delphi retirees within must-pass emergency spending legislation gives the pension restoration a better chance of passing than previous efforts that used stand-alone measures.