The Department of Labor (DOL), for a third time, has called for a delay in deciding subsequent action regarding the Biden Administration’s retirement security rule.
The agency requested an additional 60-day postponement from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, following its April request for a two-month delay.
UPDATE – DOL Abandons 2024 Fiduciary Rule Appeal
“DOL has informed us that additional time is needed to determine how to proceed in these appeals,” requested attorneys in a consent motion.
The next deadline is set for Oct. 28.
The rule remains on ice after it was initially stalled by a pair of stays last summer. At the time, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, issued a preliminary injunction to freeze the DOL’s fiduciary rule, which had been scheduled to take effect that September. Just a day later, a Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas would issue another stay.
The stays were issued after several trade associations filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas against the Labor Department, alleging that the retirement security rule would unlawfully expand the definition of a “fiduciary” and risk investors’ access to advice and education. The plaintiffs also disputed that any fiduciary rule would have to follow a 2018 final ruling from the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that rejected the previous 2016 fiduciary rule.
With these suspensions, the DOL would have been unable to instate the rule until the court’s final ruling.
The plaintiffs of that lawsuit, including The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), NAIFA-Texas, NAIFA-Dallas, NAIFA-Fort Worth, NAIFA-POET, Finseca, Insured Retirement Institute (IRI), and National Association for Fixed Annuities (NAFA), issued statements supporting the pause at the time.
SEE ALSO:
FSI, SIFMA Join Lawsuit Against Fiduciary Rule; CFP Board Backs It in Separate Suit