HELP Ranking Member DeSaulnier Opening Remarks EBSA Budget Hearing

HELP Ranking Member DeSaulnier Opening Remarks EBSA Budget Hearing

WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10) delivered the following opening statement at today's Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee hearing entitled, "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Employee Benefits Security Administration."

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

"I also want to welcome the Assistant Secretary. This is your first time testifying before our Subcommittee since you were confirmed. So, welcome.

"The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration - EBSA, for short - is a critically important agency that is charged with protecting workers' hard-earned retirement and health benefits. EBSA has a tremendous scope, overseeing over 837,000 private sector retirement plans, roughly 2.8 million health plans, and 521,000 other plans.

"While EBSA has enormous responsibilities, its funding and staffing are woefully inadequate. Unfortunately, President Trump's most recent budget makes things worse - proposing to cut EBSA's budget by $10 million below last year's funding level, resulting in a reduction of 47 full-time employees. EBSA's budget once supported over 1,000 employees, yet President Trump's proposed funding level for EBSA would support only 640. That's unacceptable. We all want efficient delivery of services, but we don't want a replication of DOGE that isn't thoughtful and properly analyzed.

"Today's hearing comes at a time when workers and their families across the country are struggling to afford necessities - just look at gas prices. President Trump's reckless tariffs and senseless war in Iran have spurred chaos in the financial markets, although they're good today, but who knows what will happen tomorrow, caused largely by the erratic policies that have left inconsistencies and [pain] at the gas pump for struggling families.

"According to data from Vanguard, there's a rising number of Americans who are tapping their retirement savings accounts to cover emergency expenses, and The New York Times recently reported on the trend of middle-class Americans selling their plasma to help with the high costs of housing, groceries, and health care.

"The last thing that these American workers and their families need is more risk - but I'm afraid that's what we've been getting with the current administration:

• The Labor Department abandoned an essential protection ensuring workers do not get ripped off by their financial advisor when investing their retirement nest egg. Return on investment is important, but also, again, proper oversight [of] that return on investment and financial advisors is also important.

• The Department also proposed a rule to provide a safe harbor for retirement plan managers to offer high-cost investments, such as crypto and private equity, in workers' 401(k) plans.

• The Department has also taken no action to address pernicious claims denials that make health care unaffordable for many Americans, and [this] has been an important subject for this Subcommittee on both majorities.

• And the Department announced it would not enforce the 2024 Mental Health Parity Final Rule and will not defend it from a lawsuit brought by representatives of some of the largest corporations in the world who want to avoid their responsibilities to provide health care under their insurance plans, including parity.

"Mr. Assistant Secretary, I understand that you led a successful business before taking this public service role. As my committee members know, I often remind my Republican colleagues that I was once a Republican, and I was once a small business owner. I understand the pressure of making a payroll.

"But I am concerned that EBSA's approach so far, under your leadership, sees each regulatory issue through a narrow lens by encouraging combatting litigation. As a result, EBSA appears to consistently prioritize the interests of corporations over workers and their families, who, I'm sure we both agree, are central to EBSA's mission.

"This is not the correct approach, in my view. Workers and families need an EBSA that fights for them and stands up for their interests. We must not retreat from that core principle.

"Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I yield back."

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