The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974
A Political History

Presents a study of Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). This book explains in detail how public officials in the executive branch and Congress overcame strong opposition from business and organized labor to pass landmark legislation regulating employer-sponsored retirement and health plans.

This deft and successful effort to mobilize the media and public opinion overwhelmed the business community and organized labor and persuaded Javits' colleagues in Congress to support comprehensive pension reform legislation. The enactment of ERISA in September 1974 recast federal policy for private pension plans by making worker security an overriding objective of federal law.

List of Tables Foreward by Daniel M. Fox and Dallas Salisbury Acknowledgments Introduction: "A Minor Miracle"
1. Policy-making for private pensions: The genesis and structure of a policy domain 2. "The Most Glorious Story of Failure in the Business": The Studebaker-Packard Corporation and the origins of Erisa 3. "The 'Bible' in this Field": The President's committee on corporate pension funds and the origins of Erisa 4. "A New Legislative Era in this Country': Pension reform from blueprint to bill 5. "A Major American Institution...Built upon Human Disappointment": Agenda-setting in the U.S. Senate 6. A green light in the Senate 7. A Donnybrook in the House 8. Enacting Erisa
Epilogue Notes Index