Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 570.0

524US2

Unit: $U94

[09-11-00 13:26:39] PAGES PGT: OPLG

Cite as: 524 U. S. 498 (1998)

525

Opinion of O(cid:146)Connor, J.

anty Corporation (PBGC) to administer an insurance pro-
gram for vested pension beneﬁts. For a temporary period,
the PBGC had discretionary authority to pay beneﬁts upon
the termination of multiemployer pension plans, after which
insurance coverage would become mandatory.
If the PBGC
exercised that authority, employers who had contributed to
the plan during the ﬁve years before its termination faced
liability for an amount proportional to their share of con-
tributions to the plan during that period. See 467 U. S., at
720–721.

Despite Congress’ effort to insure multiemployer plan ben-
eﬁts through ERISA, many multiemployer plans were in a
precarious ﬁnancial position as the date for mandatory cover-
age approached. After a series of hearings and debates,
Congress passed the MPPAA, which imposed a payment
obligation upon any employer withdrawing from a multi-
employer pension plan, the amount of which depended on the
employer’s share of the plan’s unfunded vested beneﬁts.
The MPPAA applied retroactively to withdrawals within
the ﬁve months preceding the statute’s enactment.
Id., at
721–725.

In Gray, an employer that had participated in a multiem-
ployer pension plan brought a due process challenge to the
statutory liability stemming from its withdrawal from the
plan four months before the MPPAA was enacted. Relying
on our decision in Turner Elkhorn, we rejected the employ-
er’s claim.
It was rational, we determined, for Congress to
impose retroactive liability “to prevent employers from tak-
ing advantage of a lengthy legislative process [by] withdraw-
ing while Congress debated necessary revisions in the stat-
ute.”
In addition, we explained, “as the
[MPPAA] progressed through the legislative process, Con-
gress advanced the effective date chosen so that it would
encompass only that retroactive time period that Congress
believed would be necessary to accomplish its purposes.”
Ibid. Accordingly, we concluded that the MPPAA exem-

467 U. S., at 731.