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Foxx, Good Demand Transcribed Interviews After Su Ignores Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 2, 2023
WASHINGTON – Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Chairman Bob Good (R-VA) are demanding responsive materials and transcribed interviews after Department of Labor (DOL) Acting Secretary Su failed to provide information about the Employee Benefit Security Administration’s (EBSA) enforcement practices. The letter, which follows a September 19request for materials, highlights EBSA’s expensive and overreaching investigations of retirement plan sponsors—often described as endless and aimless—that are ultimately punishing employers and discouraging them from sponsoring retirement benefit plans. 
 
In the letter, Foxx and Good write: “On September 19, 2023, we wrote you expressing concerns about EBSA’s failure to conduct its enforcement in a timely manner. The Department of Labor’s (DOL) response to the Committee’s inquiry was wholly insufficient. We must now take additional steps to ensure the Department provides sufficient answers and complies with our requests. With its response, DOL has once again demonstrated a dismissive attitude toward the Committee’s oversight responsibilities. Even worse, DOL dances around a central factual element of the Committee’s inquiry, which is that 16 percent of EBSA investigations from 2017 were still open four years later. … As we noted in our initial letter, these prolonged investigations create tremendous strain on plan sponsors.” 
 
The letter continues: “In our prior letter, we noted our concern that investigations are taking so long that the assigned investigators are often replaced several times. Furthermore, we explained that plan sponsors report there often appears to be no direction or purpose to investigations, and they often are trapped in investigations that lack an objective, an enforced progress schedule, or an endpoint. If this is the status quo DOL deems acceptable, a serious reevaluation of priorities is needed.”
 
The lawmakers conclude by requesting: 
  • A list of all open investigations, the duration of the investigation, and the specific purpose of the investigation. This request specifically directs DOL not to disclose the parties involved in the investigation. 
  • An explanation of any timeframes or internal guidance imposed on the timeliness of conducting and closing out investigations, as well as procedures that are taken to ensure those timeframes are honored. 
  • A sample copy of personnel appraisal criteria for ensuring investigations are timely and efficiently carried out and closed. 
  • An explanation of the specific steps taken to close all persisting investigations and the consequences to investigators, their supervisors, and EBSA management if investigations are allowed to languish beyond efficient timeframes. 
  • For the following individuals who work in EBSA to appear in person in the Committee’s offices for the purpose of participating in transcribed interviews:
    • Mr. Tim Hauser, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Operations; 
    • Ms. Colleen McKee, Director of the Office of Enforcement; and, 
    • Mr. Marc Sarata, Director of the Office of Field Administration. 
To read the full letter, click here. 

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