the Secretary of the Treasury may, subject to 
subparagraph (C), waive the requirements of 
subsection (a) for such year with respect to all 
or any portion of the minimum funding stand-
ard. The Secretary of the Treasury shall not 
waive the minimum funding standard with re-
spect to a plan for more than 3 of any 15 (5 
of any 15 in the case of a multiemployer plan) 
consecutive plan years. 
‘‘(B) EFFECTS OF WAIVER.—If a waiver is 
granted under subparagraph (A) for any plan 
year—
‘‘(i) in the case of a single-employer 
plan, the minimum required contribution 
under section 303 for the plan year shall 
be reduced by the amount of the waived 
funding deficiency and such amount shall 
be amortized as required under section 
303(e), and 
‘‘(ii) in the case of a multiemployer 
plan, the funding standard account shall 
be credited under section 304(b)(3)(C) 
with the amount of the waived funding de-
ficiency and such amount shall be amor-
tized 
as 
required 
under 
section 
304(b)(2)(C). 
‘‘(C) WAIVER
OF
AMORTIZED
PORTION 
NOT ALLOWED.—The Secretary of the Treasury 
may not waive under subparagraph (A) any 
portion of the minimum funding standard 
under subsection (a) for a plan year which is 
attributable to any waived funding deficiency 
for any preceding plan year. 
‘‘(2) DETERMINATION
OF
BUSINESS
HARD-
SHIP.—For purposes of this subsection, the factors 
taken into account in determining temporary sub-
stantial business hardship (substantial business 
hardship in the case of a multiemployer plan) shall 
include (but shall not be limited to) whether or 
not—
‘‘(A) the employer is operating at an eco-
nomic loss, 
‘‘(B) there is substantial unemployment or 
underemployment in the trade or business and 
in the industry concerned, 
‘‘(C) the sales and profits of the industry 
concerned are depressed or declining, and
‘‘(D) it is reasonable to expect that the 
plan will be continued only if the waiver is 
granted. 
‘‘(3) WAIVED FUNDING DEFICIENCY.—For pur-
poses of this part, the term ‘waived funding defi-
ciency’ means the portion of the minimum funding 
standard under subsection (a) (determined without 
regard to the waiver) for a plan year waived by the 
Secretary of the Treasury and not satisfied by em-
ployer contributions. 
‘‘(4) SECURITY FOR WAIVERS FOR SINGLE-EM-
PLOYER PLANS, CONSULTATIONS.—
‘‘(A) SECURITY MAY BE REQUIRED.—
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—Except as pro-
vided in subparagraph (C), the Secretary 
of the Treasury may require an employer 
maintaining a defined benefit plan which is 
a single-employer plan (within the meaning 
of section 4001(a)(15)) to provide security 
to such plan as a condition for granting or 
modifying a waiver under paragraph (1). 
‘‘(ii) SPECIAL
RULES.—Any security 
provided under clause (i) may be perfected 
and enforced only by the Pension Benefit 
Guaranty Corporation, or at the direction
of the Corporation, by a contributing spon-
sor 
(within 
the 
meaning 
of 
section 
4001(a)(13)), or a member of such spon-
sor’s controlled group (within the meaning 
of section 4001(a)(14)). 
‘‘(B) CONSULTATION WITH THE PENSION 
BENEFIT GUARANTY CORPORATION.—Except as 
provided in subparagraph (C), the Secretary of 
the Treasury shall, before granting or modi-
fying a waiver under this subsection with re-
spect to a plan described in subparagraph 
(A)(i)—
‘‘(i) provide the Pension Benefit 
Guaranty Corporation with—
‘‘(I) notice of the completed ap-
plication for any waiver or modifica-
tion, and 
‘‘(II) an opportunity to comment 
on such application within 30 days 
after receipt of such notice, and 
‘‘(ii) consider—
‘‘(I) any comments of the Cor-
poration under clause (i)(II), and 
‘‘(II) any views of any employee 
organization (within the meaning of
section 3(4)) representing participants 
in the plan which are submitted in 
writing to the Secretary of the Treas-
ury in connection with such applica-
tion. 
Information provided to the Corporation under 
this subparagraph shall be considered tax re-
turn information and subject to the safe-
guarding and reporting requirements of section 
6103(p) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 
‘‘(C) EXCEPTION
FOR
CERTAIN
WAIV-
ERS.—
‘‘(i) IN
GENERAL.—The preceding 
provisions of this paragraph shall not 
apply to any plan with respect to which the 
sum of—
‘‘(I) the aggregate unpaid min-
imum required contributions for the 
plan year and all preceding plan 
years, and 
‘‘(II) the present value of all 
waiver amortization installments de-
termined for the plan year and suc-
ceeding plan years under section 
303(e)(2),
is less than $1,000,000. 
‘‘(ii) TREATMENT
OF
WAIVERS
FOR 
WHICH APPLICATIONS ARE PENDING.—The 
amount described in clause (i)(I) shall in-
clude any increase in such amount which 
would result if all applications for waivers 
of the minimum funding standard under 
this subsection which are pending with re-
spect to such plan were denied. 
‘‘(iii) UNPAID
MINIMUM
REQUIRED 
CONTRIBUTION.—For purposes of this sub-
paragraph—
‘‘(I) IN
GENERAL.—The term 
‘unpaid minimum required contribu-
tion’ means, with respect to any plan 
year, any minimum required contribu-
tion under section 303 for the plan 
year which is not paid on or before 
the due date (as determined under 
section 303(j)(1)) for the plan year. 
‘‘(II) 
ORDERING
RULE.—For 
purposes of subclause (I), any pay-
ment to or under a plan for any plan 
year shall be allocated first to unpaid 
minimum required contributions for