Last week, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez told lawmakers on theU.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee that fiduciariescurrently serving small workplace retirement savingsplans are seeing their businesses go “gangbusters.”

Sec. Perez’s comment was made in defense of DOL’s proposed fiduciary rule, whichis currently in the waning days of the Office of Management andBudget’s final review.

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OMB received the rule from DOL on January 28, 2016, and isexpected to release the rule any day now; Monday, March 28 willmark the OMB’s 60^th day of review.

Perez told committee members that he hopes to concludethe rulemaking process as soon as OMBfinishes its review, and reminded lawmakers that the existingproposal is actually a re-proposal of the agency’s first effort toregulate an industry-wide standard of fiduciary care in 2010.

“We are six years into this” process, said Perez, who testifiedthat the agency’s rulemaking has been “deliberate andinclusive.”

Perez assured lawmakers more than once that he will personallywalk Congress and stakeholders through the changes made to the rulethat resulted from more than 300,000 comments DOL received duringtwo comment periods and a four-day public open hearing on theproposal.

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When asked about two pieces of legislation sponsored primarilyby Republican opponents of the DOL’s proposal, both of which wouldrequire Congressional approval of the rule, Perez said thosealternatives “move the status quo backward.”

Throughout the process, DOL’s “north star” has been to create an“enforceable best interest standard,” said Perez.

Most of the two-hour hearing was dedicated to other DOLregulatory initiatives.

Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tennessee and co-sponsor of the AffordableRetirement Advice Protection Act, which was crafted as analternative to DOL’s rule, pressed Perez specifically on theproposal’s Best Interest Contract Exemption.

That provision would place extensive new disclosure requirementson brokers selling products on commission to IRA owners andsponsors of workplace savings plans with fewer than 100participants.

Roe cited a recent Washington Post opinion editorial, whichcalled the proposed BIC Exemption “unworkable,” and argued that fewretirement providers, if any, would take advantage of it,potentially limiting small account owners’ access to professionalretirement planning.

He also noted a new study from the United Kingdom, where auniversal fiduciary standard of care was implemented in 2013. Roesaid the study shows that the fiduciary standard crafted in the UKhas benefited affluent investors, but priced smaller investors outof the advisory services market.

Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Arizona, told Perez that he has never seenmore “public outcry” over a proposed regulation than his office hasfielded with DOL’s proposed fiduciary rule.

“The last thing we want to see is limited access for lowerincome people,” said Salmon.

Under the Congressional Review Act, lawmakers will have 60 daysfrom the time the final rule is posted in the Federal Register toreview the fiduciary rule.

The House and Senate will then have the option to pass aresolution disapproving of the rule, but it would have to survive aveto from President Obama in order to be effective.

Since 1996, when the Congressional Review Act was enacted,Congress has successfully voted down only one piece of finalizedregulation, according to the Federal Register.