Corporations that operate traditional pension plans pleaded with Congress yesterday to resolve the dispute that has prevented passage of legislation that would reduce the amount of money most companies would have to pay into their pension funds.

Most pension plan operators have an April 15 deadline for funding their plans. A bill to rewrite the formula for contributions is stuck in a sharply divided House-Senate conference committee. The panel adjourned in anger Friday after Democrats rejected a Republican proposal to resolve a key sticking point, and Republicans refused to consider a Democratic counteroffer. Democrats have accused the White House of pressing House Republicans to take a hard line on the bill.

There have been talks between staffs since Friday, but no meetings of the committee members had been scheduled by late yesterday. 

"We cannot stress enough the urgent need to act now on final legislation addressing this issue," more than half a dozen major business groups said in a letter to the conferees. 

"This is both a jobs and a retirement security issue," the letter said. The big pension contributions that will be required if the law is not changed are "forcing employers to hold back important resources from continued investment and job creation," it said.

Among the letter's signers were the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Benefits Council and the ERISA Industry Committee. 

At the same time, some employers, including low-cost airlines, were recirculating earlier objections to provisions of the bill that give additional pension relief to certain plan operators, including airlines.

"We believe these airlines will use this cash windfall to continue to fund unprofitable flying in a concerted attempt to stifle low-cost competitors like America West," America West chief executive W. Douglas Parker wrote this month to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.).

"Further, to a degree it does a disservice to the other airlines prudent enough to provide for employee retirement with [401(k)-type] plans as opposed to" traditional pensions, Parker wrote.

The bill would allow pensions to use an interest rate based on an index of corporate bonds, rather than the 30-year Treasury bond. Such a change would reduce the value of the plans' liabilities, cutting the amount of new cash they would require. The bill also would waive for two years special contributions required of troubled pension plans in the airline and steel industries. 

Staff members from both parties have said the conferees are close to agreeing on the overall funding formula and on the special relief, but are hung up over how much to assist troubled multi-employer pensions, which are common in the trucking and construction industries.