Media Release

Release Date: 09/22/1998
Release Number: PWBA-03
Contact Name: Gloria Della
Phone Number: 202.219.8921

Labor Department Convenes Advisory Committee On Negotiated Rulemaking Under ERISA 3(40)

The U. S. Department of Labor today announced appointment of the members of the newly created Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee. The advisory committee was created by the department’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA) to develop a proposed rule that would establish criteria and a process for determining when an employee benefit plan is established or maintained under a collective bargaining agreement.

The committee will hold its first meeting on October 26 and 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the department’s headquarters at 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Room C-5320 (Seminar Room 6), Washington, D. C. Minutes of the meeting will be available through PWBA’s Public Disclosure Facility, Room N-5638, 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. Committee meetings are open to the public.

Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), plans providing welfare benefits to employees of more than one employer — known as “multiple employer welfare arrangements” (MEWAs) — are subject to some degree of state insurance regulation. Those plans deemed by the department to be collectively bargained plans, however, are exempt from state insurance regulation. The rule developed by the department will be of particular interest to unions and state insurance regulators.

Members appointed to the advisory committee are:

• Elizabeth A. Goodman -- U. S. Department of Labor, PWBA’s Office of Regulations and Interpretations (representing the department)

• Patricia Arzuaga, U. S. Department of Labor’s Office of the Solicitor, Plan Benefits Security Division (representing the department)

• Benjamin W. Boley, Esq., a partner of the Washington, D.C. law firm of Shea & Gardner (representing plans for railway labor organizations)

• Gerald Feder, Esq., a partner of Feder & Associates in Washington, D.C (representing collectively bargained multiemployer plans)

• James Ray, Esq., a partner of the Washington, D.C. law firm Connerton & Ray (an alternate representing multiemployer collectively bargained plans)

• James Kernan, Esq., Associated General Contractors in Oriskany, New York (representing employers and management)

• Kathy Krieger, Esq., member of the Washington, D.C. law firm James & Hoffman, P.C. (representing labor organizations and participants and beneficiaries in collectively bargained plans)

• David T. Livingston, Director of Research for the International Corporation (TIC), in Brookfield, Wisconsin (representing third-party administrators to multiemployer plans)

• Judith Mazo, Esq., Legal Counsel for the Segal Company in Washington, D.C. (representing the entertainment industry multiemployer health plans)

• R. Lucia Riddle, Vice President of Government Relations for The Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, Iowa (representing insurance carriers and managed care companies)

• Nancy Trenti, Esq., National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) in Washington, D.C. (representing independent agents, brokers and insurance advisors)

• Representative, National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) (representing states which regulate and license insurance)

The notice is scheduled to be published in the September 22, 1998 Federal Register.

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