Justice Breyer, with whom The Chief Justice, Justice O'Connor, and Justice Ginsburg join, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court on the assumption that it does not foreclose a reading of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 that allows the Secretary of Labor, or the Secretary of the Treasury, to issue regulations explicitly allowing plan amendments to enlarge the scope of disqualifying employment with respect to benefits attributable to already-performed services. Cf. Christensen v. Harris County, 529 U. S. 576, 589 (2000) (Souter, J., concurring). Polygraph, Lie Detector Police Jobs Cheating Wife Internet Job Search Pitching Police Officer Police Academy Home Builder Start A Daycare

FOOTNOTES

Footnote 1

This suspension provision was adopted on the authority of ERISA §203(a)(3)(B), 29 U. S. C. §1053(a)(3)(B). In authorizing such suspensions, Congress seems to have been motivated at least in part by a desire "to protect participants against their pension plan being used, in effect, to subsidize low-wage employers who hire plan retirees to compete with, and undercut the wages and working conditions of employees covered by the plan." 120 Cong. Rec. 29930 (1974) (statement of Sen. Williams regarding §203(a)(3)(B)). That explains why ERISA permits multiemployer plans to suspend a retiree's benefits only if he accepts work "in the same industry, in the same trade or craft, and the same geographic area covered by the plan." 29 U. S. C. §1053(a)(3)(B)(ii).

Footnote 2

ERISA §204(g) allows the reduction of accrued benefits by amendment in cases where a plan faces "substantial business hardship," 29 U. S. C. §1082(c)(8), and in cases involving terminated multiemployer plans, §1441.

Footnote 3

"A plan shall be treated as not satisfying the requirements of this section if the accrued benefit of a participant is decreased by an amendment of the plan, other than an amendment described in section 412(c)(8) [of this Code], or [29 U. S. C. §1441]." 26 U. S. C. §411(d)(6)(A); see also §411(d)(6)(B) (clarifying that the anti-cutback rule applies to early retirement benefits). Cf. n. 2, supra, and accompanying text (detailing ERISA §204(g)).

Footnote 4

Nothing we hold today requires the IRS to revisit the tax-exempt status in past years of plans that were amended in reliance on the agency's representations in its manual by expanding the categories of work that would trigger suspension of benefit payments as to already-accrued benefits. The Internal Revenue Code gives the Commissioner discretion to decline to apply decisions of this Court retroactively. 26 U. S. C. §7805(b)(8) ("The Secretary may prescribe the extent, if any, to which any ruling (including any judicial decision or any administrative determination other than by regulation) relating to the internal revenue laws shall be applied without retroactive effect"). This would doubtless be an appropriate occasion for exercise of that discretion.

Footnote 5

This is not to say that §203(a)(3)(B) does not authorize some amendments. Plans are free to add new suspension provisions under §203(a)(3)(B), so long as the new provisions apply only to the benefits that will be associated with future employment. The point is that this section regulates the contents of the bargain that can be struck between employer and employees as part of the complete benefits package for future employment.

Footnote 6

For analogous reasons, the Plan's reliance on 26 CFR §1.411(c)-1(f) (2003) is unavailing. That section provides that, for the purpose of allocating accrued benefits between employer and employee contributions, "[n]o adjustment to an accrued benefit is required on account of any suspension of benefits if such suspension is permitted under section 203(a)(3)(B)." We read this provision as simply establishing that the actual suspension of benefit payments pursuant to an existing suspension provision does not affect the actuarial value of a beneficiary's total benefits package for the purpose of allocation calculations, since the suspension provision has already been accounted for in the initial valuation. Cf. n. 3, supra. Far from helping the Plan, this regulation tends to support our larger proposition that it is the addition of a suspension condition, not the actual suspension of a benefit, that reduces an employee's accrued benefit