-19-
responsibility, and obligation for fiduciaries of
employee benefit plans, and by providing for
appropriate remedies, sanctions, and ready access to
the Federal courts.
To implement these goals, ERISA divided the statutory
responsibilities among three agencies: DOL, IRS, and the Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). The Code and ERISA vested
jurisdiction with the DOL and the IRS in the area of prohibited
transactions.
Four years later, to eliminate overlap and duplication in
administration, the Reorganization Plan (which was entitled
"Employee Retirement Income Security Act Transfers") was enacted
and went into effect on December 31, 1978, under Executive Order
No. 12108, 3 C.F.R. 275 (1979). The Reorganization Plan11 was
expected to reduce delays in two areas: (1) Processing
exemptions and (2) issuing regulations pursuant to ERISA. These
responsibilities were specifically delegated to the DOL, which is
primarily responsible for fiduciary standards. Reorg. Plan sec.
102(a).
In granting authority to the DOL, Reorganization Plan
section 102(a) provides:
Except as otherwise provided in Section 105 of
this Plan, all authority of the Secretary of the
Treasury to issue the following described documents
11 Reorganization Plan sec. 107 denotes the interim nature
of the reorganization plan by calling for an evaluation by Jan.
31, 1980. Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1978 (Reorganization
Plan), 3 C.F.R. 332 (1979), 5 U.S.C. app. at 1582 (1994), 92
Stat. 3790 (1978).
Page: Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011