July Meetings Scheduled For ERISA Advisory Council Working Groups

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The three working groups formed by the Advisory Committee on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefits will hold open public meetings at the U.S. Department of Labor on July 17 and 18, 2000. All of the meetings will take place in Conference Room N-5437 A-D at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Frances Perkins Building at 200 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20210.

The Working Group on Phased Retirement will meet Monday, July 17, beginning at 9:30 a.m., and will focus on testimony regarding macroeconomic trends on workforce availability, experience with phased retirement programs and regulations concerning implementation of phased retirement plans.

The Working Group Studying Long-Term Care: Issues and Solutions will convene at 1:00 p.m. July 17 for members to hear from witnesses on long-term care policies in the marketplace, policy initiatives that might be undertaken to expand long-term indemnification, the relationship between expansion of LTC indemnification and future Medicaid expenditures and the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan initiative to expand LTC indemnification for federal workers.

On July 18, the Working Group on Benefit Continuity After Organizational Restructuring will delay its previously scheduled and announced morning session until 2:00 p.m. to allow its committee members to participate in a Department of Labor event celebrating the fifth anniversary of its retirement savings campaign. When members convene, they will hear testimony from employers, who’ll describe their experiences in restructuring and the issues they faced in an effort to maintain continuity of benefits for their employees.

Persons wishing to appear before any of the study groups on either July 17 or 18 or wishing to submit written statements on this year’s topics may contact Sharon Morrissey, executive secretary of the Advisory Council, at Room N-5656, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20210. Her direct telephone number is (202) 219-8921. If written statements are to be provided, 20 copies must be sent to Ms. Morrissey before July 10. Persons with disabilities wishing to attend any of the sessions and needing special accommodations can also contact Ms. Morrissey by July 10.

The ERISA Advisory Council is comprised of 15 members from statutorily-specified subject areas in employee benefits and related fields. Members, who serve staggered three-year terms, have an explicit charter to provide the Labor Secretary with policy recommendations and reports relating to private pension and other employee benefit issues. The advisory committee to the Secretary of Labor, known more popularly as the ERISA Advisory Council, was established by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

This year’s working groups expect to have their studies and subsequent reports and/or recommendations completed by the already-scheduled final meeting of the year on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2000.

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.