Benefits March 31, 2003

Lieberman Vows Federal Domestic Partner Benefits Bill

March 31, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut), a presidential hopeful, on Monday vowed to reintroduce a Senate bill granting the same benefits to domestic partners of federal workers as spouses currently receive.
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The legislation would give domestic partners life and health insurance, retirement pay, and compensation for on-the-job injuries, according to an Associated Press report. Domestic partners could be gay or straight, as long as they file an affidavit saying they are living together in a committed, intimate relationship, but are not married.

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In remarks to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Lieberman said the move is in keeping with traditional American moral values, which Lieberman said could help meet the “unredeemed promise” of the civil rights movement.”In Washington today, there are many who would suggest that faith leads only in one direction: the conservative political direction,” Lieberman said in the speech. “That is self-evidently not so. Conservative politicians have no monopoly on moral values or the absolutely correct political positions.”

The legislation was introduced last year by Senators Mark Dayton (D-Minnesota) and Paul Wellstone,(D-Minnesota). Wellstone died last fall in a plane crash. Lieberman, one of nine Democrats seeking the presidency, said he would pick up where Wellstone left off in pressing for the bill. The measure must be reintroduced in this session of Congress. It will be referred to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, where Lieberman is the ranking Democrat, but it still faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress.

Compliance March 28, 2003

8-K Blackout Disclosure Plan Put on Hold

March 28, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said companies should continue disclosing retirement plan blackout period information in their quarterly reports for the time being.
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The notice puts on hold plans approved in January requiring companies to provide a notice to the public about said blackout periods.   Under the approved plan, retirement plan blackout information was intended to be disclosed by companies in a new section in Form 8-Ks, also referred to as a “current report,” according to a Dow Jones report.  

However, a statement issued by the Commission put the brakes on those plans because, “necessary programming to add (the pension-fund item to Form 8-K) is not yet complete.”   Therefore, companies should continue to file the disclosure in quarterly reports until the SEC announces the necessary updates to Form 8-K are ready, the agency said. No timetable was provided.

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8-K Review

>The Form 8-K is used to report the occurrence of any material events or corporate changes which are of importance to investors or security holders and previously have not been reported by the company. It is intended to provide more current information on certain specified events than would quarterly and annual reports.

The most recent rule was part of a series of administrative moves by the SEC, putting into effect a law Congress enacted last summer to combat corporate fraud and restore shaken public confidence in the integrity of corporate America.   These changes were spurred after the public downfall of Enron Corp, in which employees were blocked from selling company stock during a blackout period.

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