196
Opinion of the Court
ingly, petitioner's suit is time barred only as to the first $345.50 payment.
I
A
Congress enacted the MPPAA to protect the financial solvency of multiemployer pension plans. See generally Milwaukee Brewery Workers' Pension Plan v. Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co., 513 U. S. 414, 416-417 (1995); Connolly v. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 475 U. S. 211, 215-217 (1986); Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation v. R. A. Gray & Co., 467 U. S. 717, 722-724 (1984). The statute requires most employers who withdraw from underfunded multiemployer pension plans to pay "withdrawal liability." 29 U. S. C. § 1381(a). As relevant here, an employer incurs withdrawal liability when it effects a "complete withdrawal" from the plan. "[C]omplete withdrawal" occurs when the employer "permanently ceases to have an obligation to contribute under the plan" or "permanently ceases all covered operations under the plan." § 1383(a).1
Three Terms ago, we exhaustively described the MPPAA's complex scheme for calculating withdrawal liability. See Milwaukee Brewery Workers' Pension Plan, 513 U. S., at 417-419, 426. In brief, the Act sets the total amount of "withdrawal liability" at a level that roughly matches "the employer's proportionate share of the plan's 'unfunded vested benefits.' " R. A. Gray & Co., 467 U. S., at 725 (quoting 29 U. S. C. § 1381(b)(1)); see § 1391. The employer must, at the least, make a series of periodic payments toward that total liability. §§ 1399(c)(1)(C), (c)(3). Payments are set at a level that approximates the periodic contributions the
1 An "obligation to contribute" arises from either a collective-bargaining agreement or more general labor-law prescriptions. See 29 U. S. C. § 1392(a). The statute applies special definitions of "complete withdrawal" to particular industries. See, e. g., §§ 1383(b), (c). The statute also imposes liability for "partial withdrawal" in some circumstances. §§ 1385, 1386.
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