Whether a multiemployer pension plan that terminated through mass withdrawal before the 2020 plan year is eligible for Special Financial Assistance under 29 U.S.C. 1432(b)(1)(A)

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Pub. L. No. 117-2, 135 Stat. 4, established the Special Financial Assistance program to provide funding for certain severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans . A plan is eligible for such assistance if, as relevant here, it “is in critical and declining status (within the meaning of [29 U.S.C. 1085(b)(6) ]) in any plan year beginning in 2020 through 2022 .” 29 U.S.C. 1432 (b)(1)(A) (Supp. III 2021). Critical and declining status is one of several possible pension -plan “zone statuses” set forth in 29 U.S.C. 1085 . If a plan terminates as a result of the mass withdrawal of every employer from the plan, Section 1085 ceases to apply to the plan. See 29 U.S.C. 1081(c). The question presented is: Whether a multiemployer pension plan that terminated through mass withdrawal before the 2020 plan year is eligible for Special Financial Assistance under 29 U.S.C. 1432(b)(1)(A). (II)