House Passes Amendments Killing DOL Fiduciary Rule

News November 15, 2023 at 10:38 AM
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The full House passed by voice vote late Tuesday three amendments to H.R. 5894, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, that would block the Labor Department's new fiduciary rule.

The Biden administration said in a statement that the president would veto the spending bill, blasting its deep cuts to popular programs as "cruel" and pushing House Republicans to stick to a bipartisan agreement made in May.

The House took up the continuing resolution to fund the government Tuesday afternoon and left H.R. 5894 as unfinished business. The House passed a temporary government funding bill late Tuesday.

The House will continue debating H.R. 5894 Wednesday.

"If the House does not pass the H.R. 5894, the amendments would remain part of the bill and could be used as leverage to add to an omnibus appropriations bill or a smaller, combined appropriations measure that included funding for the agencies in the Labor-HHS bill," Dan Zielinski, spokesman for the Insured Retirement Institute in Washington, told ThinkAdvisor Wednesday.

The three amendments that passed were offered by Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga.; Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo.; and Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.

Allen's amendment restricts any funds made available by the bill from being used to finalize, implement or enforce Labor's proposed rule, entitled "Retirement Security Rule: Definition of an Investment Advice Fiduciary" or any substantially similar rule.

Wagner inserted an amendment to prohibit Labor from using funds to finalize, implement or enforce proposed amendments to class prohibited transaction exemptions (PTEs) available to investment advice fiduciaries.

Norman inserted an amendment to prohibit funding to carry out the actions described in the fact sheet released by the White House to roll out the fiduciary proposals, in which it pitched the plan as a crackdown on "junk fees" in retirement investment advice.

Labor released its proposed new fiduciary rule on Oct. 31.

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