this was unprecedented and torpedoed the most fundamental protections of erisa. suddenly the retirees who've done everything right had given a pay in exchange for a lifetime pension that these un- breakable pensions that they earned were about to be broken into their lives devastated. we knew that these cuts had to be stopped. so working with thousands of truck drivers and thousands of widows and warehouse workers and others, certain unions, we developed a campaign to try to change the law and also to influence the treasury departmenimplement the treasury department which was given authority to review the cuts. we used the tactics i talked about earlier that h we've alwas used but updated. we analyzed the law in the summaries on the website and the retiree agrees contacted us and we helped provide them with information and they put it on their own facebook page and guess what, now all of these have organized themselves into 60 powerful committees in the states. in april the retirees themselves organized a rally outside of the capital 2,00 with 2,000 spousesd for

erisa protects the reason pension expectations of workers and retires. the landmark law erisa was developed by a bipartisan congress and signed into law by republican president gerald ford, and was called by the republican senator, senator javitz, one of the lead sponsors, one of the most important pieces of social legislation since social security. before erisa, tens of thousands of people were losing their pensions every day, because there were few laws regulating pension plans, and companies could do pretty much whatever they wanted. they could require people to work until retirement age to get their pensions and then fire them two days before their 65th birthday, bye-bye pensions. this is prior to 1974, if a company went bankrupt, workers could lose everything. so erisa created basic standards to protect pension promises, including a pension insurance program to protect people in bankruptcy, developing investment and funding rules, and setting minimum rules on how long people needed to work to earn the right to a pensions but like all laws that are d

this was unprecedented and torpedoed the most fundamental protections of erisa. suddenly the retirees who've done everything right had given a pay in exchange for a lifetime pension that these un- breakable pensions that they earned were about to be broken into their lives devastated. we knew that these cuts had to be stopped. so working with thousands of truck drivers and thousands of widows and warehouse workers and others, certain unions, we developed a campaign to try to change the law and also to influence the treasury department which was given authority to review the cuts. we used the tactics i talked about earlier that we've always used but updated. we analyzed the law in the summaries on the website and the retiree agrees contacted us and we helped provide them with information and they put it on their own facebook page and guess what, now all of these have organized themselves into 60 powerful committees in the states. in april the retirees themselves organized a rally outside of the capital 2,000 with 2,000 spouses and for those calling to reject the a

this was unprecedented and torpedoed the most fundamental protections of erisa. suddenly, retirees who had done everything right, had given up wages, vacation pay, in exchange for a lifetime pension, learned these unbreakable pensions that they earned were about to be broken and their lives devastated. we knew that these cuts had to be stopped, so working with thousands of truck driver, spouses and widows, and warehouse workers and others but certain unions at aarp, we developed a campaign to both change the law and also to influence the treasury department which was given the authority to review these cuts. we used the tactics i talked about earlier, the tactics that we have always used, but updated. we analyzed the law planning the summaries at our website with thousands of retirees contacted us, we helped them to provide them with information, and they put it on their own facebook pages, and guess what. now all these retirees have organized themselves into 60 powerful committees in 30 states. in april, the retirees themselves organized a rally outside the capi

that's an erisa plan document. the legal effect of that document is to exempt the employer from any obligation to provide contraceptive coverage. there is a second document, a different document that the government then sends to the third party administrator. that document is the document that has a legal effect that creates the obligation on the part of the third party administrator to provide coverage. so it's not the case that document that comes to us is an authorizing document. that's an exempting document. justice alito: it's their plan and you are admitting you are putting something into their plan that they are objecting to on religious grounds. one involves something tangible, physical property and the other involves something that's not intangible. that's the distinction. mr. verrilli: it's not that it's intangible property. the third party administrator becomes for purposes of administering this. it becomes the plan administrator, the sole plan administrator for this portion of the plan. but even if one

congress gave retirement accounts tax-favored status and significant protections under erisa. the labor department's rules build on the statutory framework under erisa and now the fiduciary rule reflects the reality of the modern retirement landscape. it's time to move forward to help protect this generation and future generations of american savers. i urge my colleagues to vote "no" on the resolution so the implementation of this rule can continue to move forward to protect the interests of millions of hardworking americans who are saving for retirement. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, last week the c.d.c. announced it i

comply with the form of the notice requirement so therefore they probably cannot have a way under erisato obtain contraceptive coverage for their employees and less you confined and other third-party administrator. in that situation with the sisters still be subject to the to fines for failing to comply? >> i don't think so. >> weighed the alternatives but before you in this case. on the one side you have the serious effort to respect the religious beliefs that allows them to exempt themselves in a straightforward manner to protect fundamental rights and dignity of their employees who may not share their religious beliefs what you have is a demand that those rights and employees to be extinguished until such time as congress creates and enacts a different program to require a separate one off jerry read channel that will impose precisely the burdens that congress said with a statutory provision are unacceptable for all of those services. >> that is one way to characterize the issue could also say that it is the case where a great array of religious groups who orthodox jews and muslim gr