"We are absolutely optimistic that this can happen," says Bruce Gump, chair of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association.

But that optimism has been tested.
In July, the House passed the Susan Muffley Act.
That would restore the pensions of tens of thousands of Delphi retirees that they lost when GM went bankrupt in 2009.
But the bill is still in the Senate - despite broad bipartisan promise and an apparent fast track to president Biden's desk.

Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio tried to get it passed through unanimous consent, but Republican Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho objected.

"We had for Delphi every single Democrat as a yes, we had Rob Portman, we had the Republican (Senator Todd Young) in Indiana, one of the two senators there and that got us to 52, we have to get to 60," Brown said Thursday.

As for Gump and his optimism - he believes a backdoor path to the bill's passage is the answer.
He says Senator Brown has attached it to the National Defense Authorization Act.
It's a bill that has to pass every year because it authorizes military spending.

"There still has to be approval from the (Senate) finance committee to attach the bill because that's where our bill was officially assigned," said Gump. "So far we don't anticipate that there would be any major objection to that."

Gump says even if there is objection, there are other must-pass bills the Delphi measure can be added onto.
Senator Brown says there are ways to pass it with just a simple majority too.
Both men say the fight will continue.