M & K Employee Solutions, Inc. v. Trustees of IAM Nat. Pension · ¶49

In any event, “policy concerns cannot trump the best interpretation of the statutory text.” Patel v. Garland, 596 U. S. 328, 346 (2022). Congress chose which limits to impose on the selection of actuarial assumptions. The statute requires that actuarial assumptions be “reasonable” and refect actuaries' “best estimate.” § 1393(a)(1). And the statute permits employers to challenge actuarial assumptions in arbitration, including on the ground that they were “unreasonable.” § 1401(a)(3)(B)(i). Indeed, many of the worst-case scenarios petitioners posit—for example, that actuaries will adopt intentionally low discount rates for withdrawal liability but high discount rates for other purposes—are subject to challenge in arbitration. It is not the role of the Court to supplant Congress's choices, as refected in the statutory text, with our own.

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