Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Credit: Chavez-DeRemer
The U.S. Department of Labor has placed two top aides of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on administrative leave, according to reports in Politico and the New York Post.
A complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in December alleged that the aides — Jihum Han, the secretary's chief of staff, and Rebecca Wright — had helped create official events for Chavez-DeRemer to support her personal travel plans and that Chavez-DeRemer appeared to have an "inappropriate relationship" with another Labor Department employee.
Chavez-DeRemer may pursue legal action against the individual who filed the complaint, according to Politico.
Representatives for Chavez-DeRemer and the aides could not immediately be reached for comment.
"It is the policy of the DOL OIG to neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of any OIG investigation or complaint beyond what is published on our website," according to a DOL OIG representative. "DOL OIG remains committed to rooting out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption through objective, independent oversight of the U.S. Department of Labor."
What it means: As the head of the U.S. Labor Department, Chavez-DeRemer helps shape how the federal government applies the retirement savings vehicle provisions in the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
The means that any investigations that slow Chavez-DeRemer's work could slow Trump administration efforts to clarify if and how it wants to regulate sellers of individual retirement accounts and individual annuities, or if it wants to update how to regulates the marketing for 401(k) plans, similar types of plans, and the assets participants have within those plans.
The Labor Department has talked about issuing a new fiduciary rule interpretation by May.
The backdrop: In recent years, Democratic presidential administrations have tried to apply ERISA fiduciary rule standards to some transactions involving annuities, and they have talked about applying fiduciary rule standards to some sales of cash-value life products.
Republican administrations have blocked those fiduciary rule efforts by rescinding Democratic administrations' regulations and by declining to defend others against lawsuits.
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