Firing back after President Barack Obama endorsed the Department of Labor's efforts to revise fiduciary rules for retirement plan advice, Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., has reintroduced legislation to require the DOL to wait to repropose its rule until the Securities and Exchange Commission issues its own fiduciary rulemaking.

Wagner's bill, H.R. 2374, the Retail Investor Protection Act, passed the House last year. But the Senate had "no interest" in taking up the bill and President Obama's senior advisors threatened that it would be vetoed.

Better Markets and the Consumer Federation of America sent a letter to the full Senate the same day Wagner took action this week, arguing that the DOL rulemaking should be allowed to move forward as the "actual contents" of the DOL rule have not been made public. 

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Melanie Waddell

Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.