Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sent a letter co-signed by 35 other Republican Senators urging Labor Secretary Thomas Perez to extend the 75-day comment period on the agency's proposed fiduciary rule to 120 days.
The letter comes after 18 Democrats in the House of Representatives and nine Democrats in the Senate sent separate letters last week requesting an extension as well.
The 75-day comment period, set to end July 6, "is not an appropriate amount of time," wrote Alexander and the Senate Republicans, who also noted the mounting bipartisan support to extend the comment period.
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The Republican Senators also pointed out the DOL granted a comment period extension in 2010, after it was requested by lawmakers and stakeholders, echoing an argument made in a letter sent last month by lobbyists representing the financial services and insurance industries.
The extension in 2010 was granted for a proposal significantly shorter, noted the Republican Senators.
The HELP Committee has jurisdiction over private pension plans. In March, Alexander and seven other Republicans sent a letter to Shaun Donovan, director of the Office of Management and Budget, warning against authorizing a rule that resembled what was proposed in 2010.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Department of Labor, also signed the letter to Sec. Perez.
As did Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Hatch has said he'd reintroduce the SAFE Act this year, which proposes to limit the DOL's regulatory authority over individual retirement accounts, a primary area of focus in the DOL's proposal.
Other notable signatories were Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and the Senate Majority Leader, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who's seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
To date, Sec. Perez has given no indication he would yield to lawmakers' requests for an extension of the comment period.
Last month, after receiving the letter from financial and insurance industry groups, Perez told ThinkAdvisor the 75-day comment period is enough, because it follows 18 months of "informal outreach" to industry.
"That's a long time that we've provided, and we'll make sure we've heard people's voices," Perez said.
Proponents of a new fiduciary, or conflict of interest rule, which would require much stricter disclosures of compensation and conflicts of interest for advisors of 401(k) plans and IRA rollovers, also have written Perez, urging him to resist requests to extend the comment period.
"There's no justification for further delay in the effort to close loopholes in the DOL's outdated rules that are costing American workers and retirees tens of billions of dollars annually," wrote members of the Save Our Retirement Coalition, which includes the AARP, AFL-CIO, the Consumer Federation of America and the Pension Rights Center.
"Every American expects and deserves retirement investment advice that is in their best interest, and that's simply and fundamentally what the DOL is seeking to endure," said the proponents of Labor's rule.
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Nick Thornton
Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.
