A Legislative and Political History of ERISA Preemption, Part 1
Journal of Pension Benefits, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 31-35, Autumn 2006
6 Pages Posted: 20 Oct 2007
Abstract
This article recounts the key role of preemption issues in Congress's decision to pass ERISA. Until shortly before ERISA's enactment, employers and the AFL-CIO opposed comprehensive pension reform legislation. When states threatened to regulate private pension and welfare plans, however, the business community's and the AFL-CIO's strong desire for preemption all but forced them to support a federal pension reform law. Their support made passage of such legislation a virtual certainty.
Keywords: ERISA, preemption, Congress, law, politics, employee benefits, regulation, interest groups, legislation
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