DAYTON — Standard Register on Wednesday became the second major Miami Valley company to announce it will take advantage of new rules to temporarily reduce payments to its pension fund.

The communications management firm said it expects to reduce its pension contribution to $95 million from $112 million through 2014. AK Steel, based in West Chester, announced a similar pension contribution reduction earlier this week.

Provisions of a national highway bill signed by President Barack Obama on Friday included items related to the calculation of pension funds.

Companies with defined benefit pension plans, have required annual funding based on an average of corporate bond interest rates, Previously, the average of those interest rates was over a two-year period. Now the interest rate used in pension fund calculations is a 25-year average.

In recent years, interest rates have been artificially low due to Federal Reserve policies.

A provision of the law also calls for higher increased annual premiums required to be paid to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., premiums to continue to be paid by the pension trust fund, he said. The higher annual premiums somewhat offset the financial benefit of the interest rate stabilization.