‘‘(4) CONSENT PERIOD.—For purposes of this 
subsection, the term ‘consent period’ means, with re-
spect to any distribution— 
‘‘(A) the 90-day period immediately pre-
ceding the date of such distribution; or 
‘‘(B) such other period as the Secretary of 
the Treasury may provide. 
‘‘(f) DISCHARGE OF PLAN FROM LIABILITY.—Rules 
similar to the rules of section 205(c)(6) shall apply for 
purposes of this section.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
of part 2 of subtitle B of title I of the Employee Retire-
ment Income Security Act of 1974 is amended by insert-
ing after the item relating to section 205 the following 
new item: 
‘‘Sec. 205A. Additional spousal consent requirements.’’. 
(c) RIGHT OF ACTION.—Section 502(a) of the Em-
ployee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 
U.S.C. 1132), as amended by the Multiemployer Pension 
Reform Act of 2014, is amended by striking ‘‘or’’ at the 
end of paragraph (10), by striking the period at the end 
of paragraph (11) and inserting ‘‘; or’’, and by adding at 
the end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(12) by an individual for appropriate relief in 
the case of a violation of the individual’s rights 
under section 205A.’’. 
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(d) PARALLEL AMENDMENT TO SECTION 205.—Sec-
tion 205(c)(2)(B) of the Employee Retirement Income Se-
curity Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1055(c)(2)(B)) is amended 
by inserting ‘‘, because due to exceptional circumstances 
requiring the participant to seek the spouse’s consent 
would be inappropriate’’ after ‘‘located’’. 
SEC. 102. IMPROVING COVERAGE FOR LONG-TERM PART- 
TIME WORKERS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 202 of the Employee Re-
tirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1052) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new sub-
section: 
‘‘(c) SPECIAL RULE FOR CERTAIN PART-TIME EM-
PLOYEES.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—A pension plan that in-
cludes either a qualified cash or deferred arrange-
ment (as defined in section 401(k) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986) or a salary reduction agree-
ment (as described in section 403(b) of such Code) 
shall not require, as a condition of participation in 
the arrangement or agreement, that an employee 
complete a period of service with the employer (or 
employers) maintaining the plan extending beyond 
the close of the earlier of— 
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‘‘(A) the period permitted under subsection 
(a)(1) (determined without regard to subpara-
graph (B)(i) thereof) and section 410(a)(1) of 
such Code (determined without regard to sub-
paragraph (B)(i) thereof); or 
‘‘(B) the first 36-month period— 
‘‘(i) consisting of 3 consecutive 12- 
month periods during each of which the 
employee has at least 500 hours of service; 
and 
‘‘(ii) by the close of which the em-
ployee has attained the age of 21. 
‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—Paragraph (1)(B) shall not 
apply to employees who are included in a unit of em-
ployees covered by an agreement which the Secretary 
finds to be a collective bargaining agreement be-
tween employee representatives and 1 or more em-
ployers, if there is evidence that retirement benefits 
were the subject of good faith bargaining between 
such employee representatives and such employer or 
employers. 
‘‘(3) COORDINATION WITH OTHER RULES.—In 
the case of employees who are not highly com-
pensated employees (within the meaning of section 
414(q) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986) and 
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who are eligible to participate in the arrangement or 
agreement solely by reason of paragraph (1)(B): 
‘‘(A) EXCLUSIONS.—An employer may 
elect to exclude such employees from the deter-
mination of whether the plan that includes the 
arrangement or agreement satisfies the require-
ments of subsections (a)(4), (k)(3), (k)(12), 
(k)(13), (m)(2), (m)(11), and (m)(12) of sec-
tion 401 of such Code, section 410(b) of such 
Code, and section 416 of such Code. If the em-
ployer so excludes such employees with respect 
to the requirements of any such provision, such 
employees shall be excluded with respect to the 
requirements of all such provisions. This sub-
paragraph shall cease to apply to any employee 
as of the first plan year beginning after the 
plan year in which the employee completes 1 
year of service (without regard to paragraph 
(1)(B) of this subsection). 
‘‘(B) TIME OF PARTICIPATION.—The rules 
of subsection (a)(4) and section 410(a)(4) of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 shall apply 
to such employees. 
‘‘(4) 12-MONTH PERIOD.—For purposes of this 
subsection, 12-month periods shall be determined in 
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the same manner as under the last sentence of sub-
section (a)(3)(A), except that 12-month periods be-
ginning before January 1, 2014, shall not be taken 
into account.’’. 
(b) VESTING.—Section 203(b) of the Employee Re-
tirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 
1053(a)) is amended by redesignating paragraph (4) as 
paragraph (5) and by inserting after paragraph (3) the 
following new paragraph: 
‘‘(4) PART-TIME EMPLOYEES.—For purposes of de-
termining whether an employee who is eligible to partici-
pate in a qualified cash or deferred arrangement or a sal-
ary reduction agreement under a plan solely by reason of 
section 202(c)(1)(B) has a nonforfeitable right to em-
ployer contributions— 
‘‘(A) except as provided in subparagraph (B), 
each 12-month period for which the employee has at 
least 500 hours of service shall be treated as a year 
of service; and 
‘‘(B) 12-month periods occurring before the 36- 
month period described in section 202(c)(1)(B) shall 
not be treated as years of service. 
For purposes of this paragraph, 12-month periods shall 
be determined in the same manner as under the last sen-
tence of section 202(a)(3)(A), except that 12-month peri-
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