House Delays Enron Bill Markup
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.