Almost 300 companies are asking Congress, as part of any economic stimulus legislation, to suspend a requirement that they pay more into their pension funds, saying it may force them to cut jobs.

Pfizer Inc., Boeing Co., Chrysler LLC, Verizon Communications Inc., Kraft Foods Inc. and Cigna Corp. are among the companies that signed a letter to lawmakers saying the economic slowdown has slashed the value of their pension assets, forcing them to make potentially "huge'' contributions to the pension plans to meet requirements imposed by Congress in 2006.

Courtesy of Bloomberg.com