The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee passed the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act Wednesday, which aims to address the nation’s worsening multiemployer pension crisis.

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-AL, a member of the committee’s Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support, praised the committee for greenlighting the bill commonly known as the Butch Lewis Act.

“Through no fault of their own, an estimated 1.5 million retirees, workers and their families are at risk of losing the hard-earned benefits they have worked for throughout their lifetimes,” Sewell said. “Miners, truck drivers, steel workers – they’re all at risk. The Butch Lewis Act would help save these retiree’s and workers’ benefits through a public-private partnership.”

According to a press release from Sewell’s office, the bill would allow private investors to purchase “highly attractive, long-term” Treasury Bonds backed by the “full faith” of the government.

The Pension Rehabilitation Administration (PRA), a new office within the U.S. Treasury Department, would use money from the sale of these bonds to administer loans to troubled pension plans, which would allow multiemployer pension plans to “remain solvent, grow their assets and pay promised benefits,” the press release stated.

The proceeds from these loans would have to go toward low-risk investments, like an annuity or a fixed-income investment, and additional assistance would be available to prop up other plans that need it.

“If we do not take action now, millions of workers and retirees across the country will suffer as a result,” Sewell said. “This bill gives us the opportunity to go to bat for American workers and retirees, including at least 10,000 Alabamians who have played by the rules, worked hard and planned for retirement.”