Rescue Package Includes $86 Billion Bailout for Failing Pensions Democrats pushed through a big aid measure for multiemployer pensions whose problems predate the pandemic. Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, has been leading the effort to rescue the ailing pension plans.Credit...Alex Brandon/Associated Press March 7, 2021 Tucked inside the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday is an $86 billion aid package that has nothing to do with the pandemic. Rather, the $86 billion is a taxpayer bailout for about 185 union pension plans that are so close to collapse that without the rescue, more than a million retired truck drivers, retail clerks, builders and others could be forced to forgo retirement income.