Before year-end, the Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration will launch its Retirement Savings Lost and Found Database "to assist workers in getting reconnected with missing retirement savings," said Lisa Gomez, head of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration.
"Since I joined the Biden-Harris administration, I have always had one priority uppermost in my mind — securing the hard-earned employee benefits of America’s workers, retirees and their families," Gomez told ThinkAdvisor Monday in an email.
EBSA on Nov. 18 requested more feedback from retirement plan administrators that will allow it to launch a Retirement Savings Lost and Found database by Dec. 29.
The Secure 2.0 Act directed EBSA to establish a search tool to help missing participants and their beneficiaries find their retirement benefits by that date.
Other Priorities
Many of the provisions of Labor's recent rule on mental health parity in health care coverage become effective on Jan. 1. "I am looking forward to seeing how that rule can make progress in providing people access to the care they need for mental health conditions and substance use disorders without facing greater barriers than they would for medical and surgical care," Gomez said.
Labor will be working with its "sister agencies to deliver a report to Congress on our mental health parity enforcement results, and that report should also be used as a roadmap for both patients, health providers and plans to understand what we are expecting when it comes to providing access to mental health care, together with additional compliance assistance tools we have in the works," Gomez said.
EBSA also will "work on finishing up some regulations and other projects and doing our best to set up leadership in the next administration for success in continuing to deliver on EBSA’s mission," Gomez said.
Labor Chief Nominee
President-elect Donald Trump said in late November that he will nominate outgoing Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead Labor. Chavez-DeRemer has been known for her "unusually pro-union record," which has rankled some of his business allies, Bloomberg reported.
Chavez-DeRemer was one of the few Republicans to co-sponsor sweeping pro-union bills including the PRO Act, which significantly narrows the definition of "independent contractor" under the National Labor Relations Act, potentially reclassifying many independent contractors as employees.
