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Lawmakers Respond to Fiduciary RFI

A group of lawmakers has responded to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) request for information (RFI) on the fiduciary regulation delay — by expressing concern that the RFI would be used as a pretext for revising the final rule.

The group of Democratic Senators and Representatives — Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Reps. Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) — told Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta that they did not support “re-litigation” of the final rule, noting that although the final rule had been partially applicable for only a month, was not yet fully implemented, and the DOL had issued a temporary enforcement policy, “yet the RFI is prematurely seeking to gather evidence regarding the final rule’s impact on industry in order to make changes to the rule.”

“We and thousands of others have already provided substantive comments many times throughout this process,” they wrote, going on to explain, “at this time, there is no new information to provide except with respect to innovations directly resulting from this rulemaking.”

The letter proceeds to outline a “detailed account of this rule’s robust examination,” going on to explain that, “in this era of budgetary restraints, we hope this will save you from wasting any valuable resources conducting a redundant study.”

They close by noting that throughout the regulatory process, one of the primary complaints was the uncertainty surrounding the rule, and yet, according to the letters’ authors, “by dragging out this process, you are now electing to move away from the clarity of a final rule and reintroducing uncertainty.”

myRA Risk?

Many of those same lawmakers a week earlier had written to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin urging him to maintain and “promote as planned” the myRA program. The lawmakers — Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), top Democrat on the Senate HELP Committee; Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee; and Bob Casey (D-PA), Ranking Member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging; and Reps. Bobby Scott (D-VA), Ranking Member of the Education and the Workforce Committee; and Richard Neal (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Committee — said they were “concerned myRA is at risk following efforts by the Trump Administration to push Senate Republicans to thwart state and city-run retirement savings programs that would have benefited millions of people in Washington state and across the country.”

“Given that this Administration has worked to reduce access to retirement plans for millions of Americans, it is more critical than ever for the Treasury to strengthen one of their remaining options for retirement savings,” wrote the members to Secretary Mnuchin.