John N. Erlenborn

John N. Erlenborn passed away in 2005 at age 78. A member of the United States Congress who helped shepherd the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) through the House of Representatives, he was inducted as a Charter Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel in 2000.

The future representative briefly attended the University of Notre Dame in 1944 before enlisting at age 17 in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Following his military service, he attended Indiana University, the University of Illinois, and Loyola University Chicago. He studied engineering, but switched disciplines and obtained his law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1949.

After graduating from law school, he joined the firm of Perry and Elliot in Wheaton, Illinois. In 1950, he was appointed Assistant State's Attorney for DuPage County, Illinois. In 1952, he left the State's Attorney's office and, with his high school friend and future Judge William Bauer, formed the firm of Erlenborn and Bauer, also in DuPage County. In 1956, he was elected as a State Representative in the Illinois House of Representatives and served until 1964.

Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964, he served for 20 years in a suburban Chicago district. During his entire tenure in Congress, Representative Erlenborn served on the House Education and Labor Committee, eventually rising to become the ranking Republican member of that Committee. Beginning in 1968, this Committee began considering comprehensive reform of the laws governing pension plans and other employee benefit arrangements.

On September 12, 1972, NBC aired a special entitled “Pensions: The Broken Promise” which harshly criticized the U.S. private pension system, focusing on tragic cases of aging workers who were left, at the end of a life of labor, without pensions, without time to develop new pension rights, and on occasion without viable income. The program highlighted situations in which companies had terminated workers shortly before they were about to vest in their pensions or filed for bankruptcy without adequately funding pensions. See National Broadcasting Company, Inc., Petitioner, v. Federal Communications Commission and the United States of America, Respondents, Accuracy in Media, Inc., Intervenor, 516 F.2d 1101 (D.C. Cir. 1975) which includes a transcript of the NBC program. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/516/1101/419564/

After the NBC special aired, Representative Erlenborn and others in Congress felt increased public demand for action. Representative Erlenborn acknowledged that NBC had brought to light defects in the pension system that needed to be addressed. Although the system had failed some workers, he noted that the existing system had brought retirement security to many others. He advocated for reform of the existing private pension system to remedy the defects and enhance the future of the retirement system. Representative Erlenborn made it his mission to pass appropriate legislation to achieve these goals.

An acknowledged conservative stalwart known for championing the interests of management and business, Representative Erlenborn nonetheless had close friends on both sides of the aisle and was universally respected for his understanding of pensions. He applied his skills towards moving ERISA through the House of Representatives. An outspoken critic of ERISA’s dysfunctional dual overlapping administration by DOL and IRS that was put in place to placate Treasury and Labor’s dispute over which agency should be in control, he said, “I think the House would be made to look foolish if we passed legislation…adopting two sets of laws in the same area, providing two different Departments of Government with concurrent jurisdiction for administration and forcing those who are administering …plans to go to two different governmental agencies on the same questions.” U.S. Senate; Wm. S. Hein Subcommittee on Labor of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Legislative History of ERISA, P.L. 93-406, p. 20 (1974). His efforts to remedy overlapping jurisdiction by the DOL and IRS were not successful at the time of ERISA’s enactment.

He continued to be at the center of employee benefits legislation for the rest of his time in the House. Overlapping jurisdiction did become an urgent problem to remedy. He was equally outspoken and passionate as the work to divide responsibilities between the two agencies was being discussed in Congress. Challenging a colleague who was advocating that the Treasury role be maintained, he said, “Wouldn’t you agree with me the most important thing is to maintain the existence of sound plans and to see that retirement and other welfare benefits get to the working men and women of this country rather than to protect the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department or the Labor Department or any other governmental unit?” Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1978 (ERISA) Hearing before a subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, 95th Congress, 2nd session, p. 3356, Sep. 12, 1978. He saw this issue resolved in the Reorganization Plan No. 4 of 1978 (43 FR 47713, Oct. 17, 1978).

Another example of his dedication to employee benefits law came in response to situations in which uninsured multiple employer welfare arrangements (“MEWAs”) had collapsed without adequate funding to provide promised benefits. An amendment to ERISA’s preemption provision was enacted in 1983 to allow states to regulate MEWAs. This legislative change was known at the time as the “Erlenborn amendment.”

Based on his dedicated efforts in the House to achieve reform, Representative Erlenborn was often considered an important founder of ERISA in the House. Fittingly, his fishing boat on the Potomac River was christened the “Miss ERISA.”

While the passage of ERISA was his signature congressional achievement and stands as a lasting memorial to his remarkable career, his accomplishments were numerous. Among them were his co-sponsorship of the Black Lung legislation to aid coal miners with this disease.

Representative Erlenborn decided not to run for an 11th term in 1984. His son David acknowledged that his father, regarded as a consummate professional with a gentle nature, had become “disappointed that decorum among members of Congress was breaking down.” Upon completion of his tenth term as a Congressman, he joined the Washington, DC, office of the Chicago-based law firm Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather and Geraldson (in 1999 known as Seyfarth Shaw LLP) as a partner. In the 1980s, he was appointed to the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation, a non-profit organization established by Congress that funds legal help to the indigent, by President George H. W. Bush and later President William Clinton, serving as its interim President from 2001 to 2003. He was a special advisor to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in 1985 and 1986 as well as a member of the Labor Department's ERISA Advisory Committee from 1985 to 1988. He also served as president of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress and went to Eastern Europe in the early 1990s to assist emerging democracies in developing electoral systems.

Mr. Erlenborn retired from Seyfarth Shaw in 1995. He then went on to serve as an adjunct professor in the business school at Georgetown University from the time of his retirement until 2005.

William Bauer, former Chief Judge of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, considered him his "best friend" from the time they worked together at an Ovaltine factory and a laundry and hitchhiked together across the Midwest, noting upon his passing that he "was absolutely foursquare. I would trust him with anything." In the Spring 2006 volume of the John Marshall Law Review, which was dedicated to Mr. Erlenborn, Judge Bauer wrote a tribute which included the following passage:

“His work revolutionized the way companies are required to care for their employees both during their period of employment and their retirement. Both management and labor owe a great debt of gratitude to this outstanding public servant.“

Photo Source: The Decade Book, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel 2000-2010