U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. July 10, 2016. Photo by Mike Scarcella/ALM.
Staffing issues may force the Employee Benefits Security Administration to scale back some of its more labor-intensive services. Around 200 of its 889 full-time employees have opted for voluntary early retirement or deferred resignation.
EBSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Labor, oversees more than 801,000 private retirement plans, 2.6 million health plans and 514,000 other benefit plans, which collectively hold about $14 trillion in assets.
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“It’s hard to fathom how an agency whose size is soon to be smaller than my high school graduating class can effectively educate and assist the over 150 million workers, retirees and their families who participate in employer-sponsored benefit plans,” said Josh Oppenheimer, a former senior advisor to the EBSA assistant secretary during the Biden administration, according to the National Association of Plan Advisors. “This small but mighty agency was already understaffed and underfunded. These staffing losses will only make things worse.”
Several key agency functions may be affected:
- The staffing shortages could affect the help hotline; implementing SECURE 2.0 through guidance and regulations; completing the lost and found database; and providing technical guidance on future ERISA legislation.
- Investigations likely will be reduced. EBSA previously had roughly one investigator for every 14,000 health, retirement and other benefit plans. That ratio will now increase, putting further strains on the agency’s resources.
- Shrinking EBSA could slow Trump administration efforts to implement any new benefits regulation changes and reduce federal benefit plan compliance efforts.
Employees participating in the deferred resignation program will be placed on administrative leave beginning on April 28.and be paid through Overall, about 2,700 of the Labor Department’s 14,578 employees accepted the same offers. Additional staffing cuts could be coming, according to communications sent to DOL employees.
“At these levels, it’s hard to see how EBSA can fulfill its mission,” said Ali Khawar, the former principal deputy assistant secretary of labor. “Cuts to EBSA at a time of high market volatility put additional strain on EBSA’s ability to ensure retirement security.”
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Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
