Expand the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to cover all Public Employee Retirement Systems

State and federal Public Employee Retirement Systems (PERS) operate under a different set of rules than private sector retirement plans which have been regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) since 1974. The differences in these regulatory frameworks grants public employees far greater benefit protections at tremendous taxpayer expense. These protections are defended against efforts at legislative reform by biased state and federal judges that benefit from the various PERS plans. All this is occurring despite the fact that these PERS plans suffer from disastrous levels of under-funding that threatens to cripple the states and their economies. There should not be two separate classes of retirees in our country. Force PERS plans to comply with all parts ERISA.