Heitkamp, a Democrat, was one of the authors of the Butch Lewis Act. At a gathering of union workers in Fargo in 2018, Heitkamp warned that if pension funds were allowed to collapse, ripple effects could take down the U.S. economy. Heitkamp and fellow Democrats, along with their union allies, tried but failed to get the Butch Lewis Act on the 2018 omnibus spending bill. Although the bill went nowhere, many of its features were included in the ARPA stimulus package. As part of that, Democrats chose to cut back on unemployment benefits during negotiations with Republicans in order to free up money for the pension rescue plan.