The White House is sending $36 billion to buttress the Central States Pension Fund, one of the biggest and most troubled funds that manages the pensions of over 350,000 union workers and retirees.

The pending announcement on Tuesday comes about 21 months after President Biden promised $86 billion to troubled multi-employer pension funds via a controversial provision tucked inside the American Rescue Plan.

The check from Washington is a note of finality in the decades-long push to shore up these troubled plans, which had fallen on hard times as the blue-collar industries they represent shrank. Critics also charged that mismanagement played an important role in their decline.

"One cannot underestimate the significance of this assistance for basic economic security and dignity for union workers in their retirement years," Gene Sperling, the Biden aide who oversees the enactment of the American Rescue Plan, reportedly told Midwestern reporters Thursday on a conference call.