Senate Committee Hearings: The "Minority Witness Rule"

Publication Date: April 2007

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

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Research Area: Government

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Abstract:

In RILA v. Fielder, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the decision of a federal district court that found Maryland's Fair Share Health Care Fund Act ("Fair Share Act") to be preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), a federal statute that regulates pension and welfare benefit plans offered by private employers. The Fair Share Act would have required for-profit employers with 10,000 or more employees in the state to either spend a certain percentage of their total payroll on employee health insurance costs or pay to the state the amount their spending fell short of that percentage. This report discusses ERISA preemption and examines the Fourth Circuit's decision in the context of the U.S. Supreme Court's past decisions on the subject.