President Signs Pension Relief Bill

On December 23 President Bush signed into law H.R. 7327, the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, a bill to provide immediate, short-term relief for single- and multi-employer pension plans whose assets have lost value as a result of the recent market contraction. The bill provides an optional one-year freeze on changes in zone status (i.e., “green,” “yellow,” “red”) and the addition of three years to the funding improvement and rehabilitation periods for plans in the “yellow” or “red” zone in 2008 and 2009.  Further, the bill addresses many technical corrections to the 2006 Pension Protection Act sought by multi-employer plan stakeholders.  AGC worked with a broad coalition of single- and multi-pension plan stakeholders to enact emergency relief prior to the end of the year.  AGC will continue to work with its partners to enact further relief in 2009 if economic conditions warrant.