Conferees chosen for benchmark legislation

The U.S. House today named conferees to negotiate with the Senate over legislation to replace the 30-year Treasury bond as the benchmark for valuing pension liabilities with an index of corporate bonds. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, will lead the negotiations, along with fellow Republicans Howard McKeon of California, Sam Johnson of Texas and Patrick Tiberi of Ohio. Committee Democrats on the team will be George Miller of California and Ron Andrews of New Jersey. The House Ways and Means Committee will be represented by Reps. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Democrat Charles Rangel of New York. Sources say negotiations over the bill could take a week or more. Among the Senate conferees include Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.