Congressional negotiators today reached an agreement on pension legislation to replace the 30-year Treasury bond as the pension liability benchmark with a corporate bond rate for the next two years. The bill would also provide relief from 80% of catch-up contributions for financially strapped airlines, steel companies and the Transportation Communications Union Plan for the next two years. And House lawmakers agreed to give limited relief to multiemployer union plans, allowing them to delay amortizing 80% of their investment losses in 2002 for two additional years.
The full House is expected to pass the measure Friday before recessing for two weeks; the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, which is expected to take up the measure next week.
