Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance, and Sen. Max Baucus, ranking member, have re- introduced their pension protection legislation — the National Employee Savings and Trust Equity Guarantee (NESTEG) Act – which received unanimous Finance Committee support last year but never won final approval. The NESTEG bill would expand protections for retirement plan participants and require companies to allow their employees to diversify out of company stock, adopt a replacement for the 30-year Treasury rate used for pension funding purposes, expand the portability of retirement plan assets, and “simplify pension laws and regulation.”
The press release here states that the Committee will consider additional pension funding reforms in light of concerns regarding pension underfunding and the financial health of the PBGC.
A section-by-section summary of the provisions of the bill is attached to the press release which you can access here. You can access more information about the bill (S. 219) here. Among the changes proposed is a permanent replacement of the 30-year Treasury rate with a yield curve based on corporate bond rates. Last year, Congress approved a temporary replacement of the 30-year Treasury rate with a long-term corporate bond rate for pension funding purposes.