HR 3657 · 107th Congress 2001–2003, ended

Employee Pension Freedom Act of 2002

Introduced Jan 29, 2002 Originated House Sponsor George Miller D-CA

Latest action · May 9, 2002 Referred to the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

IntroducedJan 29, 2002
Passed HouseNot reached
Passed SenateNot reached
To the PresidentNot reached
Became lawNot reached

Summary

Employee Pension Freedom Act of 2002 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to set forth requirements for disclosure, diversification, account access, and accountability under defined contribution plans that are individual account plans (401(k) and similar plans).

Requires pension plan administrators to provide certain benefit information to participants or beneficiaries periodically. Requires plan sponsors (employers) and plan administrators to provide all material investment information to participants and beneficiaries, in an accurate form, as required to be disclosed to investors under applicable securities laws, and treats misleading investment information as a violation.

Requires individual account plans that permit participants or beneficiaries to exercise control over their account assets to grant them the right to allocate all their nonforfeitable accrued benefits which are readily tradable employer securities to any investment option provided under the plan.

Reduces, from three years to one year, the maximum vesting period for individual account plans (so that an employee who has completed at least one year of service has a nonforfeitable right to all of the employee's accrued benefit derived from employer contributions). Requires individual account plan fiduciaries to give 30 days notice to plan participants and beneficiaries before a lockdown limiting their control over their account assets, and limits the maximum duration of any such lockdown to ten business days.

Requires each fiduciary of an individual account plan to be bonded or insured in an amount sufficient to ensure coverage of financial losses due to failures to meet certain ERISA requirements. Requires joint boards of trustees, representing interests of employers and those of employee participants and beneficiaries, to hold in trust the assets of single-employer plans which are individual account plans with some or all assets derived from employee contributions. Makes liable anyone who participates in or conceals certain breaches of fiduciary duty. Provides that rights or claims under ERISA may not be waived, with specified exceptions. Establishes an Office of Pension Participant Advocacy in the Department of Labor. Directs the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to study and report to specified congressional committees on the feasibility of and options for developing an insurance system for individual account plans.

Cosponsors 78

Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Jan 29, 2002 to Apr 15, 2002; 54 are original cosponsors, there from the day it was introduced.

Seat	Cosponsor		Signed on
D-MD	Albert Russell Wynn	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-PR	Anibal Acevedo-Vila	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Barbara Lee	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MA	Barney Frank	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MI	Bart Stupak	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MN	Betty McCollum	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-TX	Ciro D. Rodriguez	Original	Jan 29, 2002
R-CA	Dana Rohrabacher	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-IL	David D. Phelps	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MI	David E. Bonior	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Diane E. Watson	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-VI	Donna M. Christensen	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-AL	Earl F. Hilliard	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-AZ	Ed Pastor	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-TX	Eddie Bernice Johnson	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-DC	Eleanor Holmes Norton	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MD	Elijah E. Cummings	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Ellen O. Tauscher	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-AS	Eni F. H. Faleomavaega	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-NC	Eva M. Clayton	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Fortney Pete Stark	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Hilda L. Solis	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MA	James P. McGovern	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-IL	Janice D. Schakowsky	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Joe Baca	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MI	John D. Dingell	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MA	John F. Tierney	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-NY	John J. LaFalce	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MA	John W. Olver	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Juanita Millender-McDonald	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-TX	Lloyd Doggett	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-NY	Louise McIntosh Slaughter	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Lynn C. Woolsey	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MI	Lynn N. Rivers	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-NY	Major R. Owens	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-OH	Marcy Kaptur	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-TX	Martin Frost	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MN	Martin Olav Sabo	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-NY	Maurice D. Hinchey	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-TX	Max Sandlin	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Michael M. Honda	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Nancy Pelosi	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-MO	Richard A. Gephardt	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-NJ	Robert E. Andrews	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-IL	Rod R. Blagojevich	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-NJ	Rush Holt	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Sam Farr	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-NV	Shelley Berkley	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-OH	Sherrod Brown	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Susan A. Davis	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-WI	Tammy Baldwin	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-WI	Thomas M. Barrett	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Tom Lantos	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-OH	Tom Sawyer	Original	Jan 29, 2002
D-CA	Bob Filner		Feb 4, 2002
D-MN	James L. Oberstar		Feb 4, 2002
D-IN	Julia Carson		Feb 4, 2002
D-CA	Loretta Sanchez		Feb 4, 2002
D-OH	Stephanie Tubbs Jones		Feb 4, 2002
D-FL	Alcee L. Hastings		Feb 12, 2002
D-MI	Dale E. Kildee		Feb 12, 2002
D-NJ	Frank Pallone, Jr.		Feb 12, 2002
D-ME	John Elias Baldacci		Feb 12, 2002
D-IL	William O. Lipinski		Feb 12, 2002
D-RI	Patrick J. Kennedy		Feb 14, 2002
D-TX	Ruben Hinojosa		Feb 14, 2002
D-NJ	Donald M. Payne		Feb 26, 2002
D-TN	Harold E. Ford Jr.		Feb 26, 2002
D-HI	Neil Abercrombie		Feb 26, 2002
D-CA	Brad Sherman		Feb 28, 2002
D-OH	Dennis J. Kucinich		Mar 6, 2002
D-RI	James R. Langevin		Mar 6, 2002
D-CA	Adam B. Schiff		Mar 11, 2002
D-IL	Lane Evans		Mar 11, 2002
D-NC	Melvin L. Watt		Mar 11, 2002
D-PA	Robert A. Borski		Mar 11, 2002
D-IL	Danny K. Davis		Mar 13, 2002
D-OR	Peter A. DeFazio		Apr 15, 2002

Committees 1

Where it was sent and what each committee and subcommittee did with it, in order.

Chamber	Committee	What it did
House	Education and Workforce Committee	Referred Jan 30, 2002
	Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee	Referred May 9, 2002

Actions 4

Everything that happened, newest first.

May 9, 2002Referred to the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations.
Jan 29, 2002Introduced in House
Jan 29, 2002Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR H86-87)
Jan 29, 2002Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

In the Congressional Record 2

Days the Record’s own index lists this bill, newest first, with the pages and the members it names. Pages starting H are the House, S the Senate, E Extensions of Remarks.

Where	In the Record	Members	Date
Extensions	Debate and remarks E255	George Miller D-CA	Mar 5, 2002
House · Extensions	Debate and remarks E59, H86Summaries E59	George Miller D-CA	Jan 29, 2002

Research

What has been written about this bill: committee reports, cost estimates, the sponsor’s authority statement, printed hearings and the Congressional Research Service’s work.

Printed hearings 1

Hearings whose printed record names this bill, newest first: hearings on it, and wider hearings where it came up.

Number	Hearing	Committee	Held
Serial No. 107-52	EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYER VIEWS ON RETIREMENT SECURITY132 pages	Ways and Means Committee	Mar 5, 2002

Titles 3

Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.

Official Title as Introduced: To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to provide for improved disclosure, diversification, account access, and accountability under individual account plans.
Short Titles as Introduced: Employee Pension Freedom Act of 2002
Popular Titles: Pension Protection bill

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Labor and Employment.

Text 1

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

Jan 29, 2002Introduced in House

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Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.