As anticipated, President Bush signed two bills that had swiftly cleared Congress in the waning days of his administration. The Worker, Retiree and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (Pub. L. No. 110-458) was designed to ease the effects of the financial crisis for seniors and businesses by, among other things, modifying pension funding and distribution requirements. For example, the Act waives the 2009 minimum distribution requirement for participants and beneficiaries of defined contribution employer-sponsored qualified retirement plans, and allows employers maintaining single-employer plans to spread the value of pension plan assets over a two-year period. Additionally, the legislation makes technical corrections to the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

Bush also signed a bill that makes technical corrections to the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Pub. L. No. 110-460). The legislation changes the effective date of provisions affecting collectively bargained health plans from January 1, 2009 to January 1, 2010. The initial start date was deemed a drafting error. The mental health parity law amends current requirements under ERISA, the Public Health Service Act and the Internal Revenue Code for parity in mental health benefits offered under a private group health benefit plan. For more information on the MHPA, see Littler’s ASAP: Equal Mental Health and Substance Use Benefits Realized by Russell D. Chapman and Andrea Jackson.