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DOE Solution To Underfunded Pension Plans: Don't Pay For Them

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 05.03.06

In a "notice" issued April 27, 2006 (http://directives.doe.gov/pdfs/doe/doetext/neword/351/n3511.pdf), DOE announced that "after a date to be negotiated with each Contractor, but no later than March 1, 2007," DOE will try to incorporate provisions in its contracts that would appear to make defined-benefit pensions and retiree medical benefits for new employees unallowable and prohibit reimbursement for plan enhancements unless approved in advance by DOE. It seems unlikely that DOE would have the authority to impose these requirements on existing contracts unilaterally, and some of them, particularly restrictions on the allowability of costs required by collective bargaining agreements, would conflict with existing FAR cost allowability rules.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 05.28.26

PFAS Regulatory Alert: EPA Rolls Back RCRA Proposed Rule on “Hazardous Waste” but Does Not Disturb Proposed RCRA Rule on PFAS

Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew a February 2024 Biden administration proposed rule, “Definition of Hazardous Waste Applicable to Corrective Action for Releases From Solid Waste Management Units,” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).[1] The withdrawn proposal would have revised RCRA corrective action regulations to expressly apply the broader statutory definition of “hazardous waste,” rather than only the narrower regulatory definition. Now, EPA is maintaining the status quo for corrective action under RCRA. However, EPA’s withdrawal of its proposed RCRA hazardous waste definition makes no mention of its corresponding proposal from 2024 to list nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as RCRA hazardous constituents.[2] This disjointed withdrawal, while providing some certainty for regulated entities, does not resolve how EPA plans to address PFAS under the RCRA program....