Address to America's Health Insurance Plans.

7:00-7:45 Question/Newspaper Articles/Phones

7:00 On the Phone:  SUSAN CRABTREE
The Hill
Senior Editor
<thehill.com>

Topic: Guest will discuss House Democratic leaders decision to ban the practice of using annual spending bills to direct earmarks to for-profit companies.


7:45-8:15 REP. JASON ALTMIRE D-Pennsylvania, 4th District
Education & Labor Cmte Member
<altmire.house.gov>

Topic: Debate in Congress over health care. Rep. Altmire is a Blue Dog Democrat, and is undecided so far on how he'll vote on health care legislation. He's a former hospital official and voted against the earlier House bill -- the Affordable Health Care for America Act -- on Nov. 7, saying it did not do enough to control costs.

8:15 Radio Headlines

8:15-8:45 DAVID SAVAGE Los Angeles Times
Supreme Court Reporter
latimes.com

Article: latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-roberts-speech10-2010mar10,0,4550858.story <http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-roberts-speech10-2010mar10,0,4550858.story>

Topic: On Tuesday, Chief Justice Roberts gave a speech at the University of Alabama Law School during which he criticized Pres. Obama’s State of the Union Address, calling the President’s comments on the campaign finance case “troubling” & the event “a political pep rally.” Guest will discuss the reaction to the speech, the Roberts court, as well as the separation of powers.

8:45-9:30 ROBERT JOHNSON
Roosevelt Institute
Project on Global Finance - Director
rooseveltinstitute.org <http://www.rooseveltinstitute.org/>

Topic: Guest will discuss the Roosevelt Institute's report from a group of leading economists, financiers, and former federal regulators who warn that financial regulatory reform measures proposed by the Obama administration and Congress must be beefed up to prevent banks from continuing to engage in high-risk investing that precipitated the near-collapse of the U.S. economy in 2008.


9:30-10:00 JAMES GOLDGEIER
Council on Foreign Relations
Transatlantic Relations Senior Fellow
cfr.org <http://www.cfr.org/>
and
George Washington University
Political Science & Int'l Affairs Professor
gwu.edu <http://www.gwu.edu/>

Topic: Earlier this month our guest released his report looking at the Future of NATO. He joins us with his findings and recommendations

Senator Bob Corker - R - TN news conference on Financial Regulatory Reform

HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE-SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, TRADE AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
Highway Safety

Chairman Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL)
Witnesses
· David Strickland, administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
· Joan Claybrook, former administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
· Ami Gadhia, policy counsel, Consumers Union
· Dave McCurdy, president and CEO, Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers

Fiscal 2011 Budget: Department of Defense Budget
Northern Command, Southern Command, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program

Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI)
Panel One
• Air Force Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander, U.S. Northern Command, and commander, North American Aerospace Defense Command
• Air Force Gen. Douglas M. Fraser, commander, U.S. Southern Command

Beck v. Pace International Union

2007 Case: Does the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 require an employer to consider merging an employee pension plan into a multiemployer pension plan prior to terminating the plan?

During Chapter 11 liquidation proceedings, Crown Vantage, Inc. (Crown) terminated its employee pension plan and purchased an annuity for the employee participants as a replacement. The participants advocated merging the current plan into a multiemployer PACE International Union (PACE) pension plan but Crown did not investigate the possibility. The participants alleged that Crown breached its fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) by not acting "solely in the interests of the participants" (Section 1104(a)(1)). A bankruptcy court ordered Crown to maintain the plan's funds until they were distributed to the participants.

A District Court affirmed, finding that Crown failed to consider its employees' interest. Crown appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, claiming that it did not consider the PACE plan because Section 4041 of ERISA prevents termination by way of a merger into a multiemployer plan. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court, ruling that ERISA does allow termination by way of a merger into a multiemployer plan.