House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) on Thursday reissued a request for the Department of Labor (DOL) Inspector General (IG) Larry D. Turner to investigate the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) on allegations of severe authority abuse.
In a letter, Chairman Walberg alleges that EBSA shared confidential information regarding pension benefits with a plaintiff’s attorney.
“As we saw in the first Trump administration, career bureaucrats have sought to undermine the goals of the President and his cabinet Secretaries. We know of cases where bureaucrats have leaked sensitive information or are working with plaintiffs’ attorneys to skew court cases against employers,” Walberg wrote in his letter. “The Committee’s oversight work recently brought to light how EBSA is abusing its authority to secretly share information with class action law firms. This is a blatant abuse of the law, and our Committee will hold EBSA accountable.”
The letter follows a November report by then-Chairwoman Virginia Foxx urging the Office of the IG to investigate the DOL’s use of common interest agreements and relationships with plantiffs’ law firms that affect employee benefit plans and their fiduciaries. In the report, Chairwoman Foxx accuses the DOL of sharing the confidential information of at least six employee benefit pension plans with a plaintiffs’ attorney.
According to Chairwoman Foxx’s report, EBSA gathered this confidential information during an investigation, and Michael R. Hartman, counsel for DOL’s New York Regional Solicitor’s Office, shared the information with Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll, PLLC, a law firm known for pursuing class action lawsuits involving benefit plans, to use in a lawsuit against a fiduciary of the plans. The information sharing arrangement is documented in a “common interest agreement” between DOL and Cohen Milstein dated April 21, 2023.
Following the report, Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll released a statement. “Against this backdrop [of employee benefit plans], common interest agreements between DOL and the private sector are common, legal and have been entered into by different administrations for decades,” the law firm responded.
However, Walberg argues that that’s only the case when clients are aware of the agreements.
“The plan sponsor community was unaware that EBSA was commonly feeding employee benefit plan information gathered during investigations to plaintiff law firms,” Walberg added.
“As the Committee begins its oversight for the 119th Congress, I request that the OIG continue to review the questions and concerns raised in the November 21, 2024, letter,” Walberg concludes. “Information from the OIG on this matter may provide important assistance to Congress in determining whether legislative changes are warranted.”
SEE ALSO:
EBSA Recovers Nearly $1.4B for Employee Benefit Plans, Participants
Amanda Umpierrez is the Managing Editor of 401(k) Specialist magazine. She is a financial services reporter with over six years of experience and a passion for telling stories and reporting news. Amanda received her degree in journalism and government and politics at St. John’s University. She is originally from Queens, New York, but now resides in Denver, Colorado with her partner. In her free time, Amanda enjoys running, cooking, and watching the latest drama show.