Rep. Phil Roe Says DOL Should Hold Off on Fiduciary Rule Reboot

By Melanie Waddell

News May 06, 2020 at 03:38 PM

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Labor Department headquarters in Washington. (Photo: Mike Scarcella/ALM)

Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., said Wednesday that the Labor Department should hold off releasing a fiduciary rule that aligns with the Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation Best Interest.

"I think I would wait," Roe said in response to a question asked by ThinkAdvisor during a Zoom webcast meeting held by the American Council for Capital Formation. "Certainly the less rulings that can be rendered during a pandemic when people are just trying to keep their head above water, to delay any of those would be a good idea."

Preston Rutledge, assistant secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, will leave his post at the end of May.

As head of EBSA, Rutledge has been charged with spearheading Labor's new fiduciary rule to align with Reg BI.

Brad Campbell, former head of EBSA who's now a partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, told ThinkAdvisor in a previous interview that while Rutledge's departure won't result "in any additional delay to current outstanding projects at EBSA, given the strength of his deputy, Jeanne Wilson, and the importance of the agency's mission to current events," Labor's fiduciary rule reboot has been pushed to the back burner.

"Reproposing the fiduciary rule is not at the top of the department's agenda," Campbell said. "How far down it has slipped only time and publication of the spring regulatory agenda will tell."

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