Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Illinois, suggested the Department of Labor’s proposed fiduciary rule is part of a larger agenda to crowd out the private market in providing for the country’s retirement savings needs.

Roskam’s premise was made at an event hosted by the Financial Services Roundtable.

The fifth term Congressman called the DOL’s rule a “plaintiff lawyer's dream,” and said advocates of the rule are advancing a false narrative that says if you are not for the new rule, then you are against all regulation of the retirement market.

“It’s a classic straw man argument,” he said.

Roskam, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and chair of the Oversight Subcommittee, said lawmakers on that committee will take up the issue of the fiduciary rule, hosting a hearing that will focus on the proposal’s impact on younger savers.

“My constituents don’t want Washington’s wonderful plan,” said Roskam, who added that the rule will impose the government on financial advisors, and that will ultimately limit savers access to information they need to adequately save for retirement.

The Congressman also said that retirement policy can’t be decoupled from tax policy, and said he expects Congress to take up major tax reform by 2017.

Roskam delivered the opening address at the FSR’s “The Squeeze on Gen X: The Sandwich Generation,” which examined the challenges Gen Xers face in managing retirement savings with responsibilities to aging parents and educating their kids.

Instant Insights /

Congressman says DOL fiduciary rule part of agenda to crowd out private market

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