[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3246 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3246

  To amend title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 
  1974 to reduce the amount of premiums required to be paid by small 
        businesses to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 8, 1999

Mr. Bass (for himself, Mr. Duncan, Mrs. Christensen, Mrs. Roukema, Mrs. 
Myrick, Mrs. Johnson of Connecticut, Mr. Peterson of Pennsylvania, and 
  Mr. Doyle) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 
  1974 to reduce the amount of premiums required to be paid by small 
        businesses to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Small Business Pension Accessibility 
Act of 1999''.

SEC. 2. REDUCED PBGC PREMIUM FOR NEW PLANS OF SMALL EMPLOYERS.

    (a) In General.--Subparagraph (A) of section 4006(a)(3) of the 
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 
1306(a)(3)(A)) is amended--
            (1) in clause (i), by inserting ``other than a new single-
        employer plan (as defined in subparagraph (F)) maintained by a 
        small employer (as so defined),'' after ``single-employer 
        plan,'',
            (2) in clause (iii), by striking the period at the end and 
        inserting ``, and'', and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new clause:
            ``(iv) in the case of a new single-employer plan (as 
        defined in subparagraph (F)) maintained by a small employer (as 
        so defined) for the plan year, $5 for each individual who is a 
        participant in such plan during the plan year.''.
    (b) Definition of New Single-Employer Plan.--Section 4006(a)(3) of 
the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 
1306(a)(3)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph:
    ``(F)(i) For purposes of this paragraph, a single-employer plan 
maintained by a contributing sponsor shall be treated as a new single-
employer plan for each of its first 5 plan years if, during the 36-
month period ending on the date of the adoption of such plan, the 
sponsor or any member of such sponsor's controlled group (or any 
predecessor of either) had not established or maintained a plan to 
which this title applies with respect to which benefits were accrued 
for substantially the same employees as are in the new single-employer 
plan.
    ``(ii)(I) For purposes of this paragraph, the term `small employer' 
means an employer which on the first day of any plan year has, in 
aggregation with all members of the controlled group of such employer, 
100 or fewer employees.
    ``(II) In the case of a plan maintained by two or more contributing 
sponsors that are not part of the same controlled group, the employees 
of all contributing sponsors and controlled groups of such sponsors 
shall be aggregated for purposes of determining whether any 
contributing sponsor is a small employer.''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to plans established after December 31, 2000.

SEC. 3. REDUCTION OF ADDITIONAL PBGC PREMIUM FOR NEW AND SMALL PLANS.

    (a) New Plans.--Subparagraph (E) of section 4006(a)(3) of the 
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 
1306(a)(3)(E)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
clause:
    ``(v) In the case of a new defined benefit plan, the amount 
determined under clause (ii) for any plan year shall be an amount equal 
to the product of the amount determined under clause (ii) and the 
applicable percentage. For purposes of this clause, the term 
`applicable percentage' means--
            ``(I) 0 percent, for the first plan year.
            ``(II) 20 percent, for the second plan year.
            ``(III) 40 percent, for the third plan year.
            ``(IV) 60 percent, for the fourth plan year.
            ``(V) 80 percent, for the fifth plan year.
For purposes of this clause, a defined benefit plan (as defined in 
section 3(35)) maintained by a contributing sponsor shall be treated as 
a new defined benefit plan for its first 5 plan years if, during the 
36-month period ending on the date of the adoption of the plan, the 
sponsor and each member of any controlled group including the sponsor 
(or any predecessor of either) did not establish or maintain a plan to 
which this title applies with respect to which benefits were accrued 
for substantially the same employees as are in the new plan.''.
    (b) Small Plans.--Paragraph (3) of section 4006(a) of the Employee 
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1306(a)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``The'' in subparagraph (E)(i) and 
        inserting ``Except as provided in subparagraph (G), the'', and
            (2) by inserting after subparagraph (F) the following new 
        subparagraph:
    ``(G)(i) In the case of an employer who has 25 or fewer employees 
on the first day of the plan year, the additional premium determined 
under subparagraph (E) for each participant shall not exceed $5 
multiplied by the number of participants in the plan as of the close of 
the preceding plan year.
    ``(ii) For purposes of clause (i), whether an employer has 25 or 
fewer employees on the first day of the plan year is determined taking 
into consideration all of the employees of all members of the 
contributing sponsor's controlled group. In the case of a plan 
maintained by two or more contributing sponsors, the employees of all 
contributing sponsors and their controlled groups shall be aggregated 
for purposes of determining whether 25-or-fewer-employees limitation 
has been satisfied.''.
    (c) Effective Dates.--
            (1) Subsection (a).--The amendments made by subsection (a) 
        shall apply to plans established after December 31, 2000.
            (2) Subsection (b).--The amendments made by subsection (b) 
        shall apply to plan years beginning after December 31, 2000.
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