A top House Republican suggested Tuesday that holdouts from the Obama administration prevented the Trump Labor Department from delaying a major financial rule.
“It regrettably appears Obama-era bureaucrats in the Department of Labor may have been allowed to overrule President Trump’s wishes,” House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling said Tuesday afternoon.
Hensarling was expressing disappointment in Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s announcement that his agency would not further delay the fiduciary rule. The rule, drafted under Obama, would aim to crack down on conflicts of interest in the retirement investment industry by requiring all brokers and advisers to act in their clients’ best interests. The industry and Republicans have argued that the rule would raise costs and cut off some small savers and small businesses from accessing retirement advice.
Acosta, a Trump appointee, wrote in an op-ed printed Tuesday that the rule would no longer be delayed because the law, specifically the Administrative Procedure Act, requires that the rule go into effect June 9.
Hensarling, however, expressed doubt about that explanation. He noted that he was in the Oval Office in February when Trump, as one of the early acts of his administration, signed a memo calling for the agency to review the rule. The decision to allow the rule to go into effect was not “commensurate” with the memo, he said.
Rep. Ann Wagner, a Missouri Republican who serves on Hensarling’s committee, also said Tuesday that the decision did not accord with Trump’s memo.
“While I greatly respect the rule of law, I am deeply disappointed that the fiduciary rule is not being delayed further, which I believe fails to follow the clear directive of the president of the United States,” she said.
