U.S. Senate passes pension reform.

• Position: National

The U.S. Senate passed legislation to force companies to allocate additional resources to bolster under-funded employee pensions. However, the bill provides an exemption for the nation's struggling airline industry.

The vote came a day after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal agency that insures defined-benefit plans of 44 million people and takes over the plans of bankrupt companies, reported massive liabilities and predicted future shortfalls.

The U.S. House could take up a similar bill, but it remains to be seen whether the two chambers can reconcile differences in the competing...