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Foxx, Good Bring DOL Chief Lawyer into Dead Teamsters Pension Overpayment Investigation

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 4, 2024
WASHINGTON – Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Chairman Bob Good (R-VA) sent a letter to Department of Labor Solicitor Seema Nanda requesting documents and information on the solicitor’s role in Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) failure to call for the return of the overpayment of $127 million in taxpayer money to fund pension plans for deceased participants.  
 
In the letter, the lawmakers write: “The Committee recognizes that, as Solicitor of Labor, you are the principal counsel to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, who also serves as the acting chair of PBGC’s Board of Directors… The Committee is interested in what advice and legal interpretations you and SOL have provided to PBGC regarding its legal authority to recapture these overpayments from both before and after DOL’s publication of its statement.”
 
The letter continues: “In addition, the Committee understands that SOL could play a role in how PBGC responds to inquiries from Congress and the public. Unfortunately, despite multiple inquiries, PBGC’s responses have been unacceptably incomplete. PBGC’s failure to provide full and forthright information is obstructing the Committee’s ability to consider H.R. 7135, the Ghost Handouts and Overpayments Stop Today Act (GHOST Act), or similar legislation to ensure PBGC meets its obligation to reclaim any overpayment it made in the SFA program.”

Foxx and Good conclude by requesting information on:

  1. All documents and communications exchanged between PBGC and DOL, concerning a potential mechanism for recovery of Special Financial Assistance (SFA) program overpayments;
  2. All documents and communications between PBGC and DOL concerning why PBGC believes it does not have authority to recover SFA overpayments, including but not limited to the existing authority in PBGC regulation section 4262.12(g) (29 C.F.R. § 4262(g)); and
  3. All documents and communications related to any direction, guidance, or assistance DOL gave to PBGC as PBGC wrote responses to the Committee’s inquiries and Director Hartogensis’ testimony before the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.

To read the full letter, click here.

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