AHPs let employers and, in some cases, individuals work together to offer health coverage, and pooled employer plans let employers work together to offer retirement plans.

In the past, some EBSA officials have used general language when writing and interpreting regulations, to avoid encouraging rogues to look for loopholes.

Aronowitz is a labor lawyer, a former insurance company president and someone who has helped the benefit plan sponsors with risk management. In the private sector, he has blogged about the need for EBSA to avoid using vagueness as a defense against rogues, and he said at the hearing that he thinks EBSA should take a new approach to communicating with the benefits community.

"We will end the era of regulation by litigation by providing clear and effective fiduciary guidance," Aronowitz said.

What it means: EBSA could soon have a leader who is enthusiastic about the hot new benefits ideas and knows all about them.

EBSA: EBSA is the division of the U.S. Labor Department that oversees employee benefits.

EBSA works on drafting and enforcing major health benefits regulations and batches of "subregulatory guidance," such as lists of answers to frequently asked questions, together with the U.S. Treasury Department's Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

If confirmed, Aronowitz will lead an agency responsible for regulating 2 million health plans, according to Senate HELP Chair Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican.

Aronowitz: Up until Aronowitz was nominated to the EBSA post, he was the president of Encore Fiduciary, a company that sells liability insurance and other products to benefit plan fiduciaries.

Before that, from 2005 through 2011, he was president of an Ullico affiliate, Ullico Casualty.

Before that, he worked as a labor lawyer.

Related: Trump picks ERISA fiduciary liability law expert to lead DOL's benefits unit

He has a bachelor's degree from The Ohio State University and a law degree from Vanderbilt.

He is also familiar with the personal impact of catastrophic health problems: He donated a kidney to his mother-in-law in 20211, and he is one of only about 8,000 living organ donors in the United States.

The process: The Senate HELP Committee brought Aronowitz in for a confirmation hearing that also included appearances by two Department of Education assistant secretary nominees and David Keeling, the nominee to be the Labor Department assistant secretary in charge of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Hearing details: EBSA helps draft Affordable Care Act regulations, but Aronowitz did not mention the ACA either at the hearing or in his written testimony.

In his written testimony, especially controversial topics such as the Affordable Care Act preventive benefits rules and other ACA rules. He said his list of priorities at EBSA would include setting clear mental health benefits parity rules, use of tobacco-related wellness program surcharges in health plans, and managing pharmacy benefit managers and health care costs.

At the hearing, Aronowitz emphasized that he started out working as a lawyer for labor organizations.

He said he helped turn Ullico Casualty around and focused on protecting multi-employer plans and governmental plans, then shifting to helping the sponsors.

He estimated that he has participated in hundreds of IRS, Labor Department and PBGC audits.

Next steps: To become the EBSA administrator, Aronowitz must be confirmed by the Senate. At press time, information about how Senate leaders might bring his nomination to the Senate floor was not available.