This article features the top employee benefits newsmakers of 2006. Representative John Boehner, R-Ohio, launched the reform drive in 2003 with a series of hearings on pension plan underfunding and the threat it posed to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley vetoed legislation mandating that major retailers provide a minimum level of wages and benefits. Other newsmakers included Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judge J. Frederick Motz.