Pensions, Retirement Security, and Delphi Salaried Retirees
Congressman Turner is fighting to protect the retirement benefits Americans have earned.
Retirement benefits are earned over years, and often decades, of work. Congressman Mike Turner has consistently fought to ensure that workers and retirees receive the benefits they were promised and that government does not change the rules after Americans have planned their lives and retirement around those commitments.
"Employee benefits are not a gift, they are earned."
- Congressman Mike Turner, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, April 30, 2025
Congressman Turner Defends Earned Pension Benefits for Federal Employees
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, April 30, 2025
Watch the full clip here.
Congressman Turner is leading the effort to restore the pensions of the Delphi Salaried Retirees whose retirement benefits were reduced following the 2009 General Motors bankruptcy. In 2025, he brought that same principle to the fight over proposed pension cuts for current federal employees, opposing legislation that would have required many workers to pay more toward retirement while reducing benefits they had already spent years earning.
Protecting Federal Employees' Earned Pension Benefits
In April 2025, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform considered budget reconciliation legislation that proposed major changes to the Federal Employees Retirement System for current workers. Among the provisions were an increase in pension contributions for certain current federal employees, a change from a worker's highest three years of average salary to their highest five years for calculating retirement benefits, and the elimination of certain retirement annuity payments.
Congressman Turner opposed those provisions and was the only Republican on the committee to vote against the package. During the April 30 markup, he argued that workers who had spent years earning and planning around their retirement benefits should not have those terms changed in the middle of their careers.
Rep. Turner told the committee:
"I believe that making changes to pension retirement benefits in the middle of someone's employment is wrong. Changing the rules, especially when someone has already been vested in their benefits, is wrong. Employee benefits are not a gift, they are earned."
He also drew a direct connection to his longstanding work on behalf of Delphi Salaried Retirees:
"I have fought to try to get the Delphi Salaried Retirees' pension benefits restored that were taken away from them during the Obama Administration, and I am not going to fight to have one group's pension benefits restored and then vote to take away another group's pension benefits."
Rep. Turner continued to oppose the proposed cuts as the reconciliation package moved forward. On May 21, 2025, the manager's amendment removed the provisions reducing earned pension benefits for current federal employees. Rep. Turner called the change a victory for federal workers and reaffirmed that efforts to reduce government spending should focus on waste, fraud, abuse, and unnecessary spending rather than benefits workers have already earned.
Read: Turner Secures Federal Employees' Earned Pension Benefits
Fighting to Restore the Delphi Salaried Retirees' Pensions
Since 2009, Congressman Turner has led the fight to restore the pensions of the Delphi Salaried Retirees.
More than 21,000 Delphi Salaried Retirees, including approximately 5,180 Ohioans, had their retirement benefits reduced or eliminated following Delphi's bankruptcy and the 2009 restructuring of General Motors. Congressman Turner has worked with the Delphi Salaried Retirees for more than 15 years to restore the benefits they earned.
His effort has spanned multiple presidential administrations, congressional sessions, court proceedings, and repeated bipartisan legislative efforts.
Demanding Answers and Accountability
Following the termination of the Delphi Salaried Retirees' pensions, Congressman Turner pressed the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and the federal government for information about how the retirees were treated during the General Motors restructuring.
In 2013, Rep. Turner helped form the bipartisan Auto Industry Pension Task Force to investigate the circumstances surrounding the termination of the Delphi salaried pensions and amplify retirees' fight in Congress.
Rep. Turner continued working with the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association through litigation and congressional oversight efforts. In December 2021, when retirees sought review by the U.S. Supreme Court in Dennis Black, et al. v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, Rep. Turner filed an amicus brief supporting their case. The brief argued that the Delphi salaried retirees had been treated differently during the government-directed restructuring and asked the Court to consider their constitutional claims.
After the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, Rep. Turner turned again to Congress to pursue full restoration legislatively.
Securing Presidential Action
In 2020, Congressman Turner pressed the Trump Administration to intervene on behalf of Delphi Salaried Retirees.
In September of that year, Rep. Turner and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine personally raised the issue with President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One. Rep. Turner subsequently led a group of Members of Congress urging the Administration to pursue restoration of the retirees' pensions.
On October 22, 2020, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing his administration to examine the financial status of the Delphi Salaried Retirees' pension fund and identify administrative or legislative pathways to provide relief. It represented the most significant executive-branch action on the issue in more than a decade.
The Susan Muffley Act
After judicial avenues were exhausted, Congressman Turner helped lead a bipartisan legislative effort to restore the retirees' pensions through the Susan Muffley Act, named for the late wife of a Delphi Salaried Retiree.
The legislation would provide retirees with a lump-sum payment covering pension benefits they should have received, including interest, and restore full pension payments going forward as though the reduction had never occurred.
In July 2022, the Susan Muffley Act passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support by a vote of 254–175. The Senate did not act on the legislation before the end of the 117th Congress.
Rep. Turner reintroduced the legislation in subsequent Congresses and again joined a bipartisan coalition in February 2025 to introduce the Susan Muffley Act of 2025.
In July 2026, Rep. Turner took the fight to the House Rules Committee, advocating for an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would restore the Delphi retirees' pensions. His office described the effort as another major step in his continuing campaign to deliver full pension restoration.
Protecting Retirees' Access to Health Care
Congressman Turner has also worked to protect health coverage for Delphi Salaried Retirees and other workers whose pensions and benefits were reduced through no fault of their own.
He has repeatedly supported the Health Coverage Tax Credit, which helped eligible retirees afford health insurance after losing employer-sponsored benefits. Rep. Turner previously secured extensions and protections for the credit as part of his broader Delphi work.
On April 9, 2026, Rep. Turner joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers in introducing the Health Coverage Tax Credit Reauthorization Act of 2026, which would extend the credit through January 1, 2030, and allow eligibility for qualifying months beginning after December 31, 2021.
A Consistent Principle: Earned Benefits Should Be Honored
For Congressman Turner, these fights are rooted in the same principle. Workers make career and retirement decisions based on the compensation and benefits they are promised in exchange for their service. When those benefits have been earned, government should honor that commitment.
That principle has guided Rep. Turner's work for the Delphi Salaried Retirees since 2009 and his successful fight in 2025 to protect the earned pension benefits of current federal employees.
More on Pensions, Retirement Security, and Delphi Salaried Retirees
Congressman Mike Turner is announcing that the House Oversight & Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations will hold a field hearing in Dayton on Monday June 10th. The hearing, entitled "The Delphi Pension Bailout: Unequal Treatment of Retirees," will take place at Sinclair Community College.
U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Congressman Mike Turner (R-OH) are leading a bicameral, bipartisan letter to Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Congressman Darell Issa (R-CA), Chairmen of the Senate and House Oversight Committees respectively, urging them to continue their Committees' examinations of matters pertaining to the unjust termination of Delphi salaried retiree pensions.
Congressman Mike Turner, Co-Chair of the Auto Industry Pension Task Force was joined by fellow Task Force members in writing to request that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) provide them with an update on the status of final benefit determinations for the Delphi Salaried pension plan.
"As you know, over 20,000 salaried retirees had their hard-earned retirement drastically reduced when the PBGC terminated their pensions in July 2009….For too long, these retirees have withstood undue delays on the part of the PBGC to produce this determination," wrote the lawmakers.
Congressman Mike Turner, a senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (OGR), submitted the following statement for the record as the OGR Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation & Regulatory Affairs began its hearing on "Bailout Rewards: The Treasury Department's Continued Approval of Excessive Pay for Executives at Taxpayer-Funded Companies."
Statement for the Record
Congressman Michael R. Turner (OH-10)
House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform
Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation & Regulatory Affairs Hearing
Today marks the anniversary of President Obama convening his most trusted allies and appointees to his Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry. The Task Force, a working group comprised of presidential cabinet secretaries and high-level senior advisors were tasked with managing and overseeing the taxpayer-funded bailout of General Motors (GM) following the automobile manufacturer's 2009-bankruptcy filing.
|
Image
|
Congressmen Mike Turner (OH-10) and Tim Ryan (OH-13) have founded the Auto Industry Pension Task Force for the 113th Congress. The Congressional Auto Industry Pension Task Force will serve as an informal group of Members dedicated to issues related to the termination of Delphi Salaried Retiree pensions and educating other Members on the subject. Turner and Ryan will serve as bipartisan Co-Chairs of the Task Force.
"The president and his proxies boast of saving tens of thousands of auto jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and other states. But they go mute, opaque and evasive when members of Congress and their investigators, Delphi retirees and their lawyers, demand to know who inside made the decision that caused thousands to lose as much as two-thirds of their pensions." – Daniel Howes
Delphi debacle spoils Obama bailout boast
By: Daniel Howes
Congressman Mike Turner released the following statement today, after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) rejected non-binding mediation with the Delphi Salaried Retirees. Recent media reports have indicated that the U.S. Treasury Department and PBGC made decisions that resulted in approximately 20,000 salaried Delphi retirees from across the country taking a severe cut in their pension benefits.
"While Delphi pensioners were having their pensions slashed, these guys had apparently ongoing relationships that could absolutely affect the way in which they handled their responsibilities on the Auto Task Force. It's hard to have a fiduciary obligation to the taxpayers, and to pensioners, when you have ongoing questionable ties to your business partners or law firms."- Congressman Mike Turner