I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1856 
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and the 
National Labor Relations Act to protect the health benefits of retirees, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 16, 2015 
Ms. SLAUGHTER (for herself and Mr. JONES) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act 
of 1974 and the National Labor Relations Act to protect 
the health benefits of retirees, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Employee Benefits 
Protection Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. NOTIFICATION OF EXTENT TO WHICH HEALTH BEN-
EFITS CAN BE MODIFIED OR TERMINATED. 
(a) INCLUSION IN SUMMARY PLAN DESCRIPTION.— 
Section 102(b) of the Employee Retirement Income Secu-
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rity Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1022) is amended by inserting 
‘‘; in the case of a group health plan (as so defined), 
whether the provisions of the plan permit the plan sponsor 
or any employer participating in the plan to unilaterally 
modify or terminate the benefits under the plan with re-
spect to employees, retired employees, and beneficiaries, 
and when and to what extent benefits under the plan are 
fully vested with respect to employees, retired employees, 
and beneficiaries’’ after ‘‘the name and address of such 
issuer’’. 
(b) PRESUMPTION
THAT
RETIRED
EMPLOYEE 
HEALTH BENEFITS CANNOT BE MODIFIED OR TERMI-
NATED.—Section 502 of the Employee Retirement Income 
Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1132) is amended by 
adding at the end the following new subsection: 
‘‘(n) In the case of a suit brought under this title 
by a participant or beneficiary relating to benefits of a 
retired employee or the dependents of a retired employee 
under a group health plan (as defined in section 
733(a)(1)), the presumption for purposes of such suit 
shall be that as of the date an employee retires or com-
pletes 20 years of service with the employer, benefits avail-
able under the plan during retirement of the employee are 
fully vested and cannot be modified or terminated for the 
life of the employee or, if longer, the life of the employee’s 
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spouse. This presumption can be overcome only upon a 
showing, by clear and convincing evidence, that the terms 
of the group health plan allow for a modification or termi-
nation of benefits available under the plan and that the 
employee, prior to becoming a participant in the plan, was 
made aware, in clear and unambiguous terms, that the 
plan allowed for such modification or termination of bene-
fits.’’. 
SEC. 3. PROTECTION OF RETIREES UNDER CERTAIN COL-
LECTIVELY BARGAINED AGREEMENTS. 
Section 8 of the National Labor Relations Act (29 
U.S.C. 158) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(h) It shall be an unfair labor practice for any labor 
organization and any employer to enter into any contract 
or agreement, express or implied, whereby the organiza-
tion and employer agree to modify the terms of any pre-
vious agreement in a manner that would result in a reduc-
tion or termination of retiree health insurance benefits 
provided to an employee or a dependent of an employee 
under the previous agreement, if such modification of the 
terms of the previous agreement occurs after the date on 
which the employee retires.’’. 
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SEC. 4. COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 
of the United States shall submit to Congress a report 
on the strategies that corporations use to avoid obligations 
to pay promised employee and retiree benefits. 
(b) CONTENTS.—The report under subsection (a) 
shall include a discussion of— 
(1) the use of spin-offs, mergers, subsidiaries, 
bankruptcies, asset sales, and other strategies to 
avoid obligations to pay promised employee and re-
tiree benefits; 
(2) the impact of such avoidance on the finan-
cial, physical, and mental well-being of employees 
and retirees; 
(3) the impact on Federal and State budgets 
when employers terminate or reduce the benefits of 
employees and retirees, including the costs that are 
incurred when employees and retirees seek assist-
ance from Federal and State government programs 
and services as a result of the termination or reduc-
tion of their employment-related benefits; and 
(4) recommendations to prevent corporations 
from evading contractual obligations to pay em-
ployee and retiree benefits. 
Æ 
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