Press Releases

An Inspector General investigation requested by Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) found the Biden-Harris Department of Labor (DOL) failed to protect confidential investigative information after reports the Department had shared sensitive information gathered during federal investigations with trial lawyers. The report found DOL lacked basic safeguards governing those legal information-sharing agreements, known as common interest agreements.

Chairman Walberg said: "When the Committee first learned the Department may have been sharing confidential investigative information with outside trial lawyers, we demanded answers. The Inspector General's report confirms the Department failed to put basic safeguards in place to protect sensitive information and ensure the public could trust its enforcement decisions. Americans deserve confidence that federal agencies are enforcing the law fairly—not giving outside special interests an unfair advantage. I appreciate the Inspector General's thorough review and expect the Department to fully implement these recommendations."

Among the Inspector General's findings:

·      DOL lacked basic safeguards for sharing confidential investigative information, creating the risk that outside groups received information they should not have had and an unfair advantage in lawsuits.

·      The Department had no process to screen for potential conflicts of interest, leaving open the possibility that attorneys involved in these agreements could have divided loyalties or bias.

·      The Inspector General found examples that raised conflict-of-interest concerns, including:

o   An attorney who negotiated an information-sharing agreement with DOL later became a senior counsel to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su before returning to the same outside organization.

o   DOL repeatedly entered into information-sharing agreements with an outside organization that had hired former Labor Department officials and employed people who later joined the Department.

·      The Department didn't keep track of its information-sharing agreements or what confidential information it shared, making it impossible to fully account for the practice or answer all the Committee's questions.

·      Different DOL offices played by different rules. Some relied on written agreements, others used oral agreements, there was confusion over who could approve them, and in one case an employee signed an agreement without the authority to do so.

The Inspector General found DOL shared investigative documents before litigation began, provided witness statements to outside law firms that would not normally have been available through discovery, and shared investigative information with four outside law firms through common interest agreements.

BACKGROUND

The investigation was first requested by then-Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) after the Committee learned the Biden-Harris DOL had allegedly shared confidential information obtained during an Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) investigation with a plaintiffs' law firm for use in private litigation against employee benefit plan fiduciaries. After becoming chairman, Tim Walberg (R-MI) made the issue one of the Committee's first oversight priorities, renewing the request in January 2025. The Office of Inspector General ultimately expanded its review beyond EBSA and the Office of the Solicitor to include the Wage and Hour Division.