Each week while Congress is in session, our Policy team delivers a key update to highlight a topical benefits, health, or retirement news item from the Hill, such as a newly introduced bill, a summary of a committee hearing, or another hot-button matter.
On July 22, the House Education and Workforce Committee held a subcommittee hearing entitled, “Restoring Trust: Enhancing Transparency and Oversight at EBSA.” In his opening remarks, Subcommittee Chairman Rick Allen (R-GA) noted, “Today’s hearing is about protecting the retirement savings of American workers and shielding the employers who voluntarily maintain retirement savings plans from abusive governmental overreach,” and highlighted two bills from committee members. Those bills are the EBSA Investigations Transparency Act (H.R. 2869), which would require EBSA to report annually to Congress about its investigations, and the Balance the Scales Act (H.R. 2958), which would require EBSA to report annually to Congress about its use of common interest agreements. In his opening remarks, Subcommittee Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) said that the two bills “don’t solve problems; they create new ones.”
- Lars Golumbic, Principal, Groom Law Group, Chartered, who told of his experience as a litigator discovering that the Department of Labor (“DOL”) had improperly aided opposing counsel through a common interest agreement and spoke in favor of the Balance the Scales Act;
- Andy Banducci, Senior Vice President, Retirement and Compensation Policy, The ERISA Industry Committee, who detailed issues with DOL investigations, including the length and concerns that the audits seem to be “fishing expeditions without a detailed focus;”
- Ali Khawar, Founder and President, FCP, LLC, who said that “the primary driver of delay is underfunding” at the agency and that only 12 investigations out of more than 31,000 over 15 years had a common interest agreement in place; and
- Jim Bonham, President and CEO, The ESOP Association, who stated that members of his association “have been investigated arbitrarily and relentlessly by EBSA for decades” and detailed examples of such.
