ERISA Advisory Council Status Unclear

The ERISA Advisory Council is currently “on ice,” according to sources, amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to reduce the federal bureaucracy, including staffing cuts in the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration.

According to Ali Khawar, the deputy assistant secretary of labor for EBSA under the administration of former President Joe Biden, the ERISA Advisory Council has not yet set a date for the year’s first meeting, which typically occurs in March or April.

The Department of Labor has also not yet published reports the council presented to EBSA last year, including recommendations about lifetime income and qualified default investment alternatives. Khawar says at this point, these reports are delayed beyond a standard timeline.

Lisa Gomez, assistant secretary of labor and head of EBSA under Biden, says EBSA is currently not allowed to post these reports on the website. She adds that many of the council members have agreed to sacrifice their time to participate, but next steps are unclear.

“By now, they would have been starting to think about what their projects would be [and] how they can help not only EBSA, but also the regulated community,” Gomez says.

The U.S. Senate has yet to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s nominee for secretary of labor, or schedule a committee hearing for Daniel Aronowitz, nominated to lead EBSA.

Meanwhile, Trump signed an executive order on February 19 that requires federal agencies to submit within 30 days a list of “additional unnecessary government entities and advisory committees” to the president for termination.

However, Khawar explains that the ERISA Advisory Council is a statutory advisory council, created under Section 512 of Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

“So the administration doesn’t actually have the authority to abolish the ERISA Advisory Council,” Khawar says. “It would be surprising if the department decided to recommend legislative repeal, and it would be unfortunate as well, but that would also be a longer-term thing.”

The ERISA Advisory Council consists of 15 members appointed by the secretary of labor and is required under ERISA to advise the secretary and submit recommendations regarding the secretary’s functions. Rather than all 15 members being appointed at once, five members each year are appointed to staggered three-year terms, ensuring continuity across presidential administrations. In December 2024, the Biden administration appointed five new members who were set to begin serving on the council this year. Council members all work in the private sector and represent various constituencies involved in the health and retirement industries; they are not paid for their work on the council.

Khawar says the cost of running the council is “negligible.” The department pays for members’ flights and hotels when they have in-person meetings, and members receive a per diem to pay for meals on the days they are working. He says these costs are not going to drive budget deficits.

Especially because EBSA has a limited staff and has shrunk over the years, Khawar says the council provides significant value to the agency and is able to do work on and research into issues for which the agency may not have time and resources.

“Having the benefit of this group of 15 experts that represent insurance, financial services, the actuarial profession, the general public plan sponsors … spending a year talking to each other [and] coming up with the recommendations [and] getting testimony from witnesses creates a pretty rich body of material that we can draw on,” Khawar says.

He says eliminating the council or reducing its capacity would harm the department’s ability to “do more thoughtful rulemaking and implement more thoughtful policies.”

Over the past few years, Khawar says the council has helped EBSA provide more thorough cybersecurity guidance and played a significant role in amending Interpretive Bulletin 95-1 regarding selecting an annuity provider.

In addition to pausing the work of advisory councils, agencies across the federal government have been told to prepare “reduction in force” packages to submit to the administration by March 13. This not only would lay off an employee, but also eliminate the vacated position altogether.

Khawar says EBSA is no exception to the executive order and may need to make further cuts. He notes that about 80% of EBSA’s budget is personnel costs, and it will be difficult to identify areas to cut back an already “resource-starved” agency.

“When you think about the functions that exist across the agency, it’s very troubling to think of cuts, because you’ve got an agency that is responsible for writing the health regulations for private sector health funds, which is the way that most Americans under the age of 65 have insurance,” Khawar says. “You have an office that does all of the economic analysis to support our regulatory work. … You have an office that writes all the retirement regulations. You have people that do civil and criminal enforcement. … What of those are you going to eliminate?”