On October 7, the Senate confirmed Janet Dhillon to head the Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). The vote was 51 to 47.

The PBGC oversees defined benefit (DB) pension plans’ ERISA rules. (Treasury has jurisdiction over DB plan tax rules.) Some 30 million American workers and retirees are covered by DB plans. The former Republican EEOC chair will lead the PBGC as it is more than halfway through administering a Biden-era bailout of some of the nation’s most severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans.

Prospects: Dhillon, formerly chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), is well-regarded in the retirement savings plan community. It is expected that impacted DB plan sponsors will find working with her to be less confrontational than PBGC interactions during the Biden years.

NAIFA Staff Contact: Jayne Fitzgerald – Director – Government Relations, at jfitzgerald@naifa.org