Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Credit: Chavez-DeRemer
The U.S. Department of Labor has placed two top aides of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on administrative leave, according to reports in Politico and the New York Post.
A complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in December alleged that the aides — Jihum Han, the secretary's chief of staff, and Rebecca Wright — had helped create official events for Chavez-DeRemer to support her personal travel plans and that Chavez-DeRemer appeared to have an "inappropriate relationship" with another Labor Department employee.
Chavez-DeRemer may pursue legal action against the individual who filed the complaint, according to Politico.
Representatives for Chavez-DeRemer and the aides could not immediately be reached for comment.
"It is the policy of the DOL OIG to neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of any OIG investigation or complaint beyond what is published on our website," according to a DOL OIG representative. "DOL OIG remains committed to rooting out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption through objective, independent oversight of the U.S. Department of Labor."
What it means: As the head of the U.S. Labor Department, Chavez-DeRemer helps shape how the federal government applies the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Affordable Care Act, the No Surprises Act and other federal laws and regulations to employee benefit plans and the plan sponsors' advisors.
Any disruption at the Labor Department could slow pending Trump administration efforts to develop new guidelines for applying ERISA fiduciary rule standards to retirement savings and investment arrangements and to develop new regulations for implementing No Surprises Act health plan broker compensation disclosure requirements.
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