The White House supports the long-discussed restoration of benefits to Delphi salaried retirees, who lost them 17 years ago.

The Office of Management and Budget sent a letter Wednesday to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, asking for a supplemental budget request that includes $1 billion for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which oversaw Delphi employees’ pensions. Union pensions for hourly employees were fully funded, but the retirees were denied the same considerations, getting paid far less.

The letter asks for the $1 billion “to increase the benefit levels for participants of certain pension plans that were sponsored by Delphi Corporation and terminated as a result of General Motors’ bankruptcy.”

There are more than 21,000 salaried retirees nationwide affected by this, including about 5,100 in Ohio. Most of the ones impacted in Ohio are in the Dayton area with several in the Mahoning Valley.

U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, an Ohio Republican, said: “Delphi retirees were denied the dignified retirement they worked for their whole lives and rightfully earned. This work has been attempted by Congress in the past, but the effort continued to fall short. It’s past time to bring justice to these families, including more than 5,100 Ohioans, and deliver to them what they were promised.”

Husted is a lead sponsor in the Senate on the bipartisan Susan Muffley Act of 2025 to restore the pensions of the Delphi salaried retirees. The act was named for the late wife of a Delphi salaried retiree.

Under the proposal, the retirees would receive a lump sum payment covering the pension benefits they should have received with 6% interest added to account for the delay.

A similar bill passed the House in July 2022, but the Senate never voted on it.

Also, in October 2020, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the PBGC to examine the financial status of the Delphi retirees’ pension fund and to investigate administrative or legislative ways to restore the pensions.

The funding is included as a requested amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027.

A decision on placing it in the bill could be made as soon as next week.

U.S. Rep. Michael Turner, R-Dayton, is the lead on the request. Others who are backing the request include U.S. Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge, and Michael Rulli, R-Salem, who represent the Mahoning Valley in the House.