[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2529 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2529

To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to exclude 
      cooperative employing units from multiple employer welfare 
                             arrangements.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 23, 2005

 Mr. Andrews introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to exclude 
      cooperative employing units from multiple employer welfare 
                             arrangements.

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

SECTION 1. EXCLUSION OF COOPERATIVE EMPLOYING UNITS FROM MULTIPLE 
              EMPLOYER WELFARE ARRANGEMENTS.

    (a) In General.--Subparagraph (A) of section 3(40) of the Employee 
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1002(40)) is 
amended--
            (1) by striking ``or'' at the end of clause (ii);
            (2) by striking the period at the end of clause (iii) and 
        inserting ``, or''; and
            (3) by inserting after clause (iii) the following new 
        clause:
            ``(iv) by a cooperative employing unit.''.
    (b) Cooperative Employing Unit Defined.--Subparagraph (B) of 
section 3(40) of such Act is amended--
            (1) by striking ``and'' at the end of clause (iv);
            (2) by striking the period at the end of clause (v) and 
        inserting ``, and''; and
            (3) by inserting after clause (v) the following new clause:
            ``(vi) the term `cooperative employing unit' means--
                    ``(I) a corporation with at least 21 shareholders 
                operating on a cooperative basis subject to the 
                provisions of subchapter T of chapter 1 of the Internal 
                Revenue Code of 1986, all the shareholders of which 
                engage in business operations using the same four digit 
                North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 
                code root, and
                    ``(II) where the corporation assumes responsibility 
                pursuant to a written agreement with each shareholder, 
                with respect to all worksite employees providing 
                services to such shareholder, for the payment of wages 
                and the withholding, payment and reporting of taxes 
                related thereto, for the provision of employee 
                benefits, and for the hiring and termination of 
                workers, without regard to the receipt or adequacy of 
                payment from the shareholder for services.''.
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