Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
By 
October 08, 2019 at 10:07 AM
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., vows to restore the Labor Department’s vacated fiduciary rule if she is elected president.
In a 14-page labor manifesto released Thursday, Warren states that as part of her plan to defend worker pensions and other retirement savings, she will restore the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule that was vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit “that the Trump administration delayed and failed to defend in court, so that brokers can’t cheat workers out of their retirement savings.”
A coalition of industry groups fought the rule in court, arguing that the rule was inconsistent with existing laws; that Labor had overreached to regulate services and providers beyond its authority; that Labor was imposing legally unauthorized contract terms to enforce the new regulations and violating the First Amendment; and that the rule gave arbitrary and capricious treatment to variable and fixed indexed annuities. The 5th Circuit found merit in many of these arguments, and the Trump Labor Department did not appeal.
Warren says her administration will also “recognize the value of defined-benefit pension, and on multi-employer pensions, I will push to pass the Butch-Lewis Act to create a loan program for the most financially distressed pension plans in the country.”
She vows to “work with labor leaders, policy experts, fund counsel, actuaries, and benefits specialists to improve the pension system and to devise policy for financially challenged plans that are not in immediate distress.”
