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February 13, 2017 at 12:04 PM
Sen. Elizabeth Warren D-Mass., grilled Labor secretary nominee Andrew Puzder in a 28-page letter on Monday about how he’d deal with a range of issues, including minimum wage, the Wells Fargo fake-accounts scandal, enforcing labor laws, and the directive issued by President Donald Trump to review Labor’s fiduciary rule.
Fast-food executive Puzder’s initial confirmation hearing before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee takes place on Thursday.
Warren, as a member of the HELP Committee, in her letter to Puzder, told him to answer 83 questions by Feb. 21 on how he’d go about performing the analysis of the fiduciary rule, as directed by Trump on Feb. 3.
“Part of your job as Labor secretary will be to ensure that DOL’s rule to protect savers from financial advisor conflicts of interest is fully implemented and enforced,” Warren wrote.
She noted that besides reviewing the rule, Trump asked the Labor Department to perform an “updated economic and legal analysis” of the rule’s likely impact.
Depending on the results of this analysis, she continued, the department is directed to “publish a new rule or rescind the rule,” she wrote.
Besides asking which staff would perform the analysis, and what information would be reviewed, Warren queried Puzder on whether he would “enforce it [the rule] to the full extent of the law” if it takes effect on its first compliance date of April 10.
DOL filed a notice on Thursday with the Office of Management and Budget to delay implementation of its fiduciary rule via a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
