Senate Confirms Janet Dhillon as PBGC Director
The U.S. Senate on Oct. 7 confirmed Janet Dhillon as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), as the federal government undergoes an ongoing shutdown.
Dhillon will serve a five-year term and succeeds former PBGC Acting Director Alice Maroni. Her confirmation was part of a package deal that confirmed 108 Trump-nominated personnel to different seats across federal agencies. Nominees were confirmed in a 51-47 vote by the Senate.
Dhillon’s confirmation was enabled by an Oct. 3 vote that authorizes the Senate to vote on a block of certain nominations in a given executive session. The Senate had previously passed a controversial “nuclear option” measure in September that would allow the majority party to change procedural rules with a simple majority vote.
As part of the package, EBSA Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Aronowitz will also serve a five-year term in his position, set to expire in 2031. Like Dhillon, Aronowitz was confirmed to his role along with other nominees in a singular vote. He succeeded Dhillon, who served in an acting assistant secretary capacity at EBSA following Lisa Gomez’s resignation in January.
President Trump nominated Dhillon as PBGC director in March, before she was advanced to the full Senate by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Trump had previously nominated Dhillon in 2017 to chair the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), before her confirmation in May 2019. She would go on to serve her role until January 2021 and would continue to work in the EEOC until she resigned in November 2022.
After her time at the EEOC, Dhillon served a brief stint as chief legal officer and corporate secretary for retailer giant Dollar Tree Stores.
Prior to joining the EEOC, Dhillon served as executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Burlington Stores, Inc. She was also previously the executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of J.C. Penney Company, Inc., and before that, the senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer of U.S. Airways Group, Inc, now American Airlines.
Amanda Umpierrez is the Managing Editor of 401(k) Specialist magazine. She is a financial services reporter with nearly a decade of experience and a passion for telling stories and reporting news. She is originally from Queens, New York, but now resides in Denver, Colorado.
