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Compliance May 1, 2025
GOP House Bills Target DOL Audit Process
The legislation would require the Department of Labor to submit annual reports on the status of its investigations, including those active for more than 36 months.
Reported by James Van Bramer
A pair of bills proposed by Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives would require the Department of Labor to submit annual reports to Congress on the status of its audits, including active investigations that have been open for more than 36 months.
Representative Lisa McClain, R-Michigan, introduced the Employee Benefit Security Administration Investigations Transparency Act on April 10 to amend Section 504 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, which grants the DOL the authority to investigate potential violations of ERISA.
If passed, the DOL’s Employee Benefit Security Administration would need to report to Congress:
- The date an investigation was opened;
- The date any initial documents were requested from the target of the investigation;
- Whether the investigation was concluded within three years and, if not, what prevented the investigation from being completed in that time frame; and
- When the investigation is likely to be completed.
The bill is cosponsored by Representative Burgess Owens, R-Utah, and Representative Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, to which the bill has initially been referred.
A separate bill, introduced by Representative Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, on April 17, requires EBSA to submit an annual report to Congress on “adverse interest agreements.” It has also been referred to the Education and Workforce Committee.
Adverse interest typically refers to when personal interests conflict with an organization’s duty, leading to improper decision making, which the DOL has been accused of by House Republicans.
In January, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce issued a request to the DOL’s Office of Inspector General to investigate an allegation that DOL personnel shared confidential plan information with a plaintiffs’ attorney.
“As we saw in the first [President Donald] Trump administration, career bureaucrats have sought to undermine the goals of the President and his cabinet Secretaries,” Walberg wrote in that request. “We know of cases where bureaucrats have leaked sensitive information or are working with plaintiffs’ attorneys to skew court cases against employers.”
