The White House’s 2017 budget calls on Congress to authorize a more than $24 million increase to the Employee Benefit Security Administration’s budget.
In 2016, the EBSA is operating off a $181 million budget for 949 full-time employees.
President Obama wants to see that bumped up to $205.8 million, in part to help account for 16 new full-time positions requested in the budget.
EBSA’s budget has held steady since 2012, when it was allocated about $183 million.
The largest portion of the requested budget increase will go to employee benefits security programs. The budget proposal calls for nearly $7.6 million and seven new full-time positions to modernizing and staffing EBSA’s “major case” initiative, which was established in fiscal year 2013.
EBSA will “continue to invest more time and resources on major cases that are likely to have a greater impact on participants and plans,” according to the budget proposal being sent to Congress.
Since the inception of the major case initiative, EBSA has certified 209 major cases, resulting in more than $631 million in returned assets to plans and participants.
The 2017 budget foresees EBSA spending 15 percent of its total investigative time on major case enforcement, down from 18 percent in 2015.
That is expected to result in a 2 to 5 percent increase, or up to an $11.2 million increase in returned assets, which have averaged around $225 million over the past five years.
The Department of Labor’s proposed fiduciary rule is referenced as primary among EBSA’s regulatory projects, but the budget does not specify how much money will go to implanting and enforcing that rule in 2017.
In 2015, EBSA processed 2,441 civil cases, and restored about $184.8 million to benefit plans via civil and criminal proceedings. Including the money restored through informal dispute resolutions, EBSA recovered a total of $660.9 million in 2015.
The budget proposal is also calling for another $2.9 million and nine new full-time employees to augment the security programs’ data and analytics capabilities in order to help regulators improve enforcement strategies, and help determine if cost-efficient alternatives to litigation are available in some cases.
Another $2.5 million is requested to improve the DOL’s oversight of the federal Thrift Savings Program, and $6.5 million in grant money to help states implement state-sponsored workplace retirement initiatives aimed to close the retirement plan access gap in small businesses.
The White House is also proposing $100 million to fund portable, multiple employer pilot programs, which would be administered by the DOL’s Chief Evaluation Office. The money would be directed to states or non-profits, according to the EBSA’s budget proposal.
A copy of EBSA’s proposed budget can be accessed here.
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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.
