Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008
Public Law 110-458 · H.R. 7327 · 110th Congress · began in the House
Signed by George W. Bush (R) on Dec 23, 2008 · Labor and Employment
Sponsor: Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY-15)
Cosponsors (3): Rep. Jim McCrery, Rep. George Miller,
Passage votes
- HouseUnanimous consent
- SenateUnanimous consent
Data notes
The final version of the law, as each chamber passed it. A chamber that passed it by voice vote or unanimous consent has no count. “Method not stated” means the record does not say how the chamber voted. Where the record has a member-by-member vote, the “Who voted for it” section shows who voted yea.
Summary
The Congressional Research Service’s plain-language summary of what the law does.
Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 - Title I: Technical Corrections Related to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 - Subtitle A: Technical Corrections Related to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 - (Sec. 101) Makes technical corrections to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code to conform to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 regarding various specified items, including: (1) the target normal cost of benefits; (2) specified implementation and effective dates for certain requirements; (3) one-participant retirement plans; (4) special age-related rules in accrued benefit requirements for applicable defined benefit plans; (5) inapplicability in certain cases of the limitation on income deductions (for tax purposes) for employer contributions to one or more defined contribution plans; and (6) adjustments to averaging in the determination of the value of the assets of single-employer defined benefit pension plans for minimum funding purposes.
(Sec. 110) Makes technical corrections to the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 with respect to railroad retirement payments to persons not entitled to an annuity.
Subtitle B: Other Provisions - (Sec. 121) Requires that the value of assets for any ERISA plan under the averaging method be adjusted for expected earnings (in addition to contributions and distributions, as under current law).
(Sec. 122) Modifies the interest rate assumption required with respect to certain small employer plans.
(Sec. 123) Makes technical corrections to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 to require treatment of a rate of return or a method of crediting interest as a market rate of return and a permissible method of crediting interest in special age-related rules for governmental defined benefit plans.
(Sec. 124) Prescribes a special rule for exclusion from gross income of certain reimbursements from governmental plans for health care expenses of a deceased accident or health care plan participant's beneficiary.
(Sec. 125) Requires treatment as a qualified rollover contribution of any airline payment amount received by a qualified airline employee in an airline carrier bankruptcy which is transferred to a Roth IRA within 180 days of receipt.
(Sec. 126) Revises asset valuation rules for certain commercial airline benefit plans.
(Sec. 127) Increases by $4 the penalties for failure to file partnership returns and S corporation returns.
Title II: Pension Provisions Relating to Economic Crisis - (Sec. 201) Provides a waiver of minimum distribution requirements for certain retirement plans and accounts for 2009.
(Sec. 202) Revises requirements for determining the shortfall amortization base for a single-employer defined benefit pension plan the value of whose plan assets exceeds the plan funding target for any plan year beginning after 2007 and before 2011.
(Sec. 203) Modifies for FY2009 application of the limitation on benefit accruals for single-employer plans with severe funding shortfalls. Requires substituting the plan's adjusted funding target attainment percentage for the preceding plan year for the adjusted funding target attainment percentage for the new plan year, but only if the percentage for the preceding plan year is greater.
(Sec. 204) Provides for delay of the designation of multiemployer benefit plans as endangered or critical during FY2009.
(Sec. 205) Extends the funding improvement and rehabilitation periods for multiemployer benefit plans in endangered or critical status for FY2008 or FY2009.
Committees
The committees the bill was sent to, and what each did with it.
Data notes
A committee links to its page only where it exists in the current Congress; older and renamed committees are named without a link.
Related bills
3 bills the Library of Congress relates to this one.
H.R. 3361Related bill
Pension Protection Technical Corrections Act of 2008
H.R. 6382Related bill
Pension Protection Technical Corrections Act of 2008
S. 1974Related bill
Pension Protection Technical Corrections Act of 2007
Data notes
Related bills are identified by the Congressional Research Service, the House and the Senate: companion and identical bills, bills with similar text, bills that were folded into this law, and rules that brought it to the floor. A bill that is itself a public law in this site’s data links here; the others link to Congress.gov.
Timeline
From introduction to signing, newest first: the committees, the floor and the president. 14 actions.
- Dec 23, 2008Became lawBecame law · Became Public Law No: 110-458.
- Became lawBecame law · Signed by President.
- Dec 17, 2008FloorFloor · Presented to President.
- Dec 12, 2008FloorFloor · Message on Senate action sent to the House.
- Dec 11, 2008FloorFloor · Received in the Senate, read twice, considered, read the third time, and passed without amendment by Unanimous Consent.
- OtherOther · Cleared for White House.
- Dec 10, 2008FloorFloor · Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
- FloorFloor · On passage Passed without objection.
- FloorFloor · Considered by unanimous consent.
- FloorFloor · Mr. Pomeroy asked unanimous consent to discharge from committee and consider.
- CommitteeCommittee · Committee on Education and Labor discharged.
- CommitteeCommittee · Committee on Ways and Means discharged.
- CommitteeCommittee · Referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Education and Labor, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
- IntroducedIntroduced · Introduced in House
Data notes
Every action the Library of Congress lists for the bill, from introduction to signing, plus the dated committee hearings. The source lists many steps twice (the chamber’s own entry and the Library of Congress copy, or a presidential and a became-law entry with the same words); those are shown once. Amendments are listed in their own section.
Amendments
No amendments to this bill are on record.
Data notes
Amendments offered to this bill in either chamber, as the Library of Congress records them: each with a status read from its last recorded step: agreed to, rejected, withdrawn, ruled out of order, fell with another amendment, or offered with no vote recorded (most Senate amendments are only ever offered). The wording of each amendment is the source’s. Amendments to amendments and amendments to other bills are not listed.
Official record
The bill’s full text is on Congress.gov. Data through Oct 7, 2026.