House Delays Enron Bill Markup

March 14, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Concerned about burdening plan sponsors with having to report on their pension plan activities to two federal agencies, House Republican leaders delayed a plan mark up of a key pension bill.

The House Ways and Means Committee had planned to make the final edits to The Employee Benefits Bill of Rights (H.R. 3369) yesterday, according to House leaders.
 
Sponsored by Representatives Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Benjamin Cardin (D-Maryland), the bill, in its current form, gives responsibility for administering pension laws to both the Treasury and Labor Departments.

Conflicts

According to a Wall Street Journal report, lawmakers feared that bill, as written, would produce agency conflicts and dual pension plan reporting requirements for employers. The mark up was delayed to give negotiators more time to work out any jurisdictional problems. 

Meanwhile, the House Education and the Workforce Committee is working on the Pension Security Act (H.R. 3762), sponsored by Chairman John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Representative Sam Johnson (R-Texas) and based on President Bush’s proposal for pension reform.

The bills are just two of the plethora of proposed legislative reforms to America’s pension and benefit system in light of the collapse of Enron.

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