House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-MI) sent a letter to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to “highlight policy items the Committee supports and to call [her] attention to ongoing oversight efforts neglected by the Biden-Harris Administration.” In the letter, Walberg urges DOL to rescind or withdraw several Wage and Hour Division rules, including: (1) the final rule “Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Act Regulations”; (2) the final rule on “Employee or Independent Contractor Classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act”; and (3) the final rule “Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors.” The letter also requests the withdrawal of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s proposed rule on “Heat Injury and Illness in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings” and the recission of OSHA’s final rule on the “Worker Walkaround Designation Process.” Finally, the letter also calls for the rescission of the Employee Benefits Security Administration’s final rules implementing “Requirements Related to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.”
The letter also notes that in the 118th Congress, the Committee sent 90 oversight requests to DOL that did not receive a response, including: (1) an investigation into the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s overpayments to multiemployer pension plans for deceased participants; (2) an investigation into allegations that the Employee Benefits Security Administration’s (EBSA) use of common interest agreements and relationships with plaintiffs’ law firms to share confidential information for use in class action lawsuits against plan fiduciaries; and (3) an investigation into allegations that EBSA is “failing to conduct its enforcement in a timely manner, creating unacceptable burdens for retirement plan sponsors and negatively impacting retirement savers, retirees, and their families.” The letter closes by urging Secretary Chavez-DeRemer to consider the issues raised in the letter and to “remain in proactive contact with the Committee as other agenda items arise.”