Biden Renominates Gomez to Key DOL Post

The Senate HELP committee will consider the nomination of Lisa Gomez to lead EBSA on Jan. 12.

President Joe Biden has renominated ERISA attorney Lisa Gomez to head the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, the agency overseeing retirement plan rules.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved by a 12-10 vote on Dec. 2 Gomez’s nomination. However, her nomination was not taken up by the full Senate by year-end.

If the President still wants a nominee considered, he must submit a new nomination to the Senate. He did so on Tuesday.

The new legislative session began this week.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the HELP Committee’s chairwoman, announced the same day that she will consider Gomez’s nomination on Jan. 12.

If confirmed by the full Senate, Gomez will be the point person on helping Labor shepherd a new fiduciary rule.

Labor’s Fall Regulatory agenda still listed December as the date for issuing its new fiduciary rule proposal.

Fred Reish, partner at Faegre Drinker in Los Angeles, said Labor’s regulatory agenda likely signals “that the release of a new proposed fiduciary definition and related prohibited transaction exemptions is imminent, perhaps within 60 days.”

However, Reish continued, “that could only refer to submitting those proposals to the White House” for review by the Office of Management and Budget. “That review could take another 60 to 90 days after that before the proposals are approved and published in the Federal Register, which will be when we will first see” what the rules say.

During her confirmation hearing before the HELP Committee in early October, Gomez said that if confirmed, she looks forward to working with the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as with Labor “to be briefed on the efforts of looking at the definition of a fiduciary in different contexts, and taking another look at the conflict of interest rule and how it would apply in different situations.”