Judge Catharina Haynes has given the Labor Department 60 days to decide whether it will appeal two district courts' universal stays of Labor's 2024 fiduciary rule.
The Labor Department on Feb. 12 asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to pause the consolidated appeals, which were initiated under the administration of President Joe Biden.
The Cases
In late July, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division granted the request of the Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice and several independent insurance agents to delay the implementation of Labor's new fiduciary rule, officially called the Retirement Security Rule.
A day after, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued its own stay of the fiduciary rule and the prohibited transaction exemptions 2020-02 on rollovers and 84-24 on annuities, as requested by nine insurance trade groups in American Council of Life Insurers, et. al. v. U.S. Department of Labor, et. al., filed on May 21.
'New Leadership'
Due to the change in administration on Jan. 20, "DOL is now under new leadership," and new agency officials "are still in the process of onboarding and familiarizing themselves with all of the issues presented by pending litigation," the filing states.
To allow new DOL officials "sufficient time to become familiar with the issues in these cases and determine how they wish to proceed, the government respectfully moves to place these consolidated appeals in abeyance, with status reports due at 60-day intervals," the filing states.
Haynes stated in her Feb. 14 order that "appellants’ unopposed motion to stay further proceedings in this court to allow new Department of Labor officials sufficient time to become familiar with the issues in these cases and determine how they wish to proceed" was granted for 60 days.
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