The Bush administration's plan would:

* Bar senior corporate executives from selling company stock during times when workers are unable to trade in 401(k) plans.

* Require that employees be given notice 30 days before a lockout period (during which time they could not make any transactions with their plan funds).

* Give employees more freedom to sell company stock and diversify investment options.

* Call for the Senate to pass the Retirement Security Advice Act (RSAA), which passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support last fall. The RSAA would exempt employers from liability for specific advice provided to 401(k) plan participants by third-party financial institutions that also administer the 401(k) plan, as long as disclosure requirements were met.

Another bill (S. 1921), introduced early in February by Republican Senators Trent Lott, Minority Leader, and Kay Bailey Hutchinson, is similar to the president's proposal. However, it would require a 401 (k) plan to provide at least four investment options, three of which are not company stock.

Common subjects in the legislation and proposals that have surfaced to date: 401(k) account diversification; notice and duration of a lockout period; fiduciary responsibility; investment advice; and financial education.

Topics that have appeared only in Democratic-sponsored legislation include limiting the amount of company stock that can be held in a 401 (k) and creating new legal remedies for plan participants.

A summary of the pension bills that have recently been introduced, Background Information Relating to the Investment of Retirement Plan Assets in Company Stock (JCX-1-- 02), is posted on the Web site of the Joint Committee on Taxation at www.house.gov/jct