Arthur Amchan appointed NLRB Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge.  The National Labor Relations Board today announced that Judge Arthur Amchan has been named its Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge. Judge Amchan previously served as Associate Chief Administrative Law Judge in the Washington office of the Board's Division of Judges. Judge Amchan has been an NLRB judge for 14 years. Before coming to the Board, he served as an administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. Prior to his appointment as an administrative law judge, he was an attorney at the Department of Labor.

The following bills introduced over the month would:

• amend the National Labor Relations Act to clarify the intent of Congress for federal labor law preemption of State and local law, and for other purposes. Federal Labor Law Preemption of State and Local Law (H. 6436). Introduced 11/18/2010 by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich). Referred to Education and Labor.

Employee Benefits Top of Page

High Court rejects health reform challenge.   On November 8, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The case was Baldwin v. Sebelius (10-369). Soon after the ACA was passed, Steve Baldwin, a former California state legislator and an advocate of limited government, and the Pacific Legal Institute, challenged the requirement that all individuals have health insurance beginning in 2014.

After a district court ruled that that neither an individual nor an employer could show at this point any suffering or injury from the law, both Baldwin and the Legal Institute appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals (No. 10-56374), where it still is pending. Baldwin, however, also petitioned for a ruling from the Supreme Court before the first case was decided. The Court, however, declined to hear the case without comment. In two other recent challenges to the ACA, a Michigan court dismissed a case and a Florida court allowed two challenges to move forward.

Pension Law Top of Page

EBSA issues proposed regulations on DB annual funding notice requirements.   The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has issued proposed regulations that would implement the defined benefit plan disclosure requirements under ERISA Sec. 101(f), as amended by the Pension Protection Act (PPA). On adoption, this proposed regulation would implement the annual funding notice requirement in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), as amended by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) and the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA). As amended, section 101(f) of ERISA generally requires the administrators of all defined benefit plans, not just multiemployer defined benefit plans, to furnish an annual funding notice to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), participants, beneficiaries, and certain other persons.

A funding notice must include, among other information, the plan's funding target attainment percentage or funded percentage, as applicable, over a period of time, as well as other information relevant to the plan's funded status. This document also contains proposed conforming amendments to other regulations under ERISA, such as the summary annual report regulation, which became necessary when the PPA amended section 101(f) of ERISA. The proposed regulation would affect plan administrators and participants and beneficiaries of defined benefit pension plans, as well as labor organizations representing participants and beneficiaries and contributing employers of multiemployer plans.