<nobr>Mar 17, 2005</nobr>

ERIC Presses Congress to Make Permanent a 2001 Expiring Tax Relief Provision

March 17, 2005 -- The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) and a coalition representing a broad spectrum of employer plan sponsors and retirement plan service providers are urging lawmakers to approve an Administration proposal that would make permanent the pension provisions found in Title Six of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA).

A petition already signed by 22 organizations and 57 companies and circulated on Capitol Hill, credits Title Six of EGTRRA for numerous improvements to the employer-provided retirement plan system that permits American workers to save more in employer plans and to receive higher benefits in retirement. Important provisions in the title also target low-income and older workers.

EGTRRA is playing an important role in correcting pension funding shortfalls attributable to congressionally imposed restrictions on both employee contributions to, and employer funding for, retirement plans during the 1980s and early 1990s, according to ERIC Senior Vice President Janice Gregory.

"EGTRRA is an important first step in reversing the trend towards employee undersaving and pension plan underfunding," Gregory said. "Many of the pension funding problems we see today have their roots in pre-EGTRRA policies."

According to the petition, EGTRRA changes "are the most recent product of an enormously successful partnership among employers, financial institutions and other service providers, and the government that has resulted in an 'ownership society' that permits over eighty million workers to share in America's prosperity while building critical retirement income security."

The petition also states that without Title Six of EGTRRA, "these improvements will be rolled back or eliminated; a key component of the successful ownership society will be restricted; and the retirement security of millions of individuals will be diminished.”

For additional information on EGTRRA and for a list of "Pension Principles" guiding ERIC's pension reform strategy, please check out ERIC OnLine or (www.eric.org).


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The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) is a non-profit association committed to the advancement of employee retirement, health, and welfare benefit plans of America's largest employers and represents exclusively the employee benefits interests of major employers. ERIC's members provide comprehensive retirement, health care coverage and other economic security benefits directly to some 25 million active and retired workers and their families. ERIC has a strong interest in proposals affecting its members' ability to deliver those benefits, their cost and their effectiveness, as well as the role of those benefits in the American economy.

The ERISA Industry Committee
1400 L Street, N.W., Suite 350
Washington, DC 20005-3509
Tel: (202) 789-1400
Fax: (202) 789-1120
rzeidner@eric.org
www.eric.org

Websites:

ERIC Petition

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