During a visit to Chicago on Thursday, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez shrugged off the multiple lawsuits against the Department of Labor on its fiduciary rule, saying "DOL gets sued with some degree of frequency," and pointed out the recent Home Health Care lawsuit that the Supreme Court opted not to review this week.
"I appreciate the right that people have to file lawsuits, [but] have every confidence we will succeed," he said. "I have confidence because not only is [the rule] a solid product, but a product that's a result of a very robust process."
He said the DOL worked closely with the industry in revising its draft fiduciary rule, and in fact, was 'thanked' by them, he said, for listening to their requests for changes when the new rule was issued. "Some folks in industry want a Best Interest Rule as long as it's not enforceable. I don't think it makes sense to allow them to put out marketing material without that material being enforceable. We're now in a court of law with those cases and I'm confident we'll prevail."
Along with other politicians such as Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs, Perez took a tour of the Center for Economic Progress, the brainchild of mutual fund manager and CEO of Ariel Investments John Rogers, and then held a roundtable to get insights from the Center's staff and volunteers.
Perez called the team "heroic figures" and noted how impressed he was with the work of the agency, especially in raising the FICO scores of some of the Center's clients. The Center provides financial literacy training, free tax preparation and other financial services to low-income families.
