Today’s Federal Register is here.
Read this article by James Dawn for the Toronto Star at TheStar.com for a pleasant surprise: “Fairy godmother bails out staff.” The story details how TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. of Calgary is dumping its defined contribution plan (“DC plan”) and reinstating employees in its defined benefit plan, at a cost of nearly $92,000 per employee. The article reports that the company is abandoning its DC plan due to poor perfomance by employees’ investments and also because it felt that the defined contribution plan contributed to a “culture of transience” and a “lack of loyalty.” The article reports that the company’s intent in taking this giant step is to “tie its highly skilled employees to their jobs and remove any distractions or concerns related to retirement income.”
“Fear of losing insurance keeps workers from moving on”: this article at SFGate.com on how health insurance coverage is affecting worker mobility.
The Washington Times has this article by Stephen Dinan: “House GOP seeks $82 billion tax cut.” The article reports that House Republicans will try to pass a $82 billion tax-cut bill today, “sending back to the Senate a much broader tax cut than the $10 billion bill senators passed last week.” The bill extends the $1,000 per child tax credit through 2010, eliminates the eligibility disparity between married couples and individuals in qualifying income for the child credit, and includes several smaller tax cuts for military families.