U.S. Chamber ‘Already Working’ With Trump to Kill the Fiduciary Rule
December 13, 2016 by Melanie Waddell
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is “already working” with Trump administration transition officials to “undo” the U.S. Labor Department’s fiduciary rule, Thomas Donohue, the president and chief executive of the business group, said Monday.
In a blog post on Monday, Donohue said the Chamber is “urging immediate action to undo” the fiduciary rule, because “if enacted, it would choke economic growth, increase frivolous litigation against financial advisers and make saving for retirement more difficult for hardworking Americans.”
President-elect Donald Trump, Donohue wrote, “will have the power to quickly undo some of President Obama’s executive orders by issuing executive orders of his own,” but other regulatory reforms will require going through “the lengthier and more complicated rulemaking process.” The fiduciary rule is one of those.
The Chamber is among the groups suing DOL over the fiduciary rule in a case in Texas, along with other plaintiffs including the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the Financial Services Institute.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas heard oral arguments in the case on Nov. 18. Lawyers attending the arguments had differing views about which way Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn was leaning. A decision by Lynn is anticipated by year-end.
The nine plaintiffs in the Texas case are represented by former DOL solicitor Eugene Scalia, now a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington office and a son of deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Donohue said in his Monday that “congressional leaders should prioritize legislation that would reform the way rules are made and enforced,” noting that Chamber led a coalition of 380 business associations and local chambers of commerce to urge House leaders to move quickly on the Regulatory Accountability Act in the next Congress.
“It would make the regulatory process more transparent, agencies more accountable, and regulations better targeted to solve existing problems without creating new ones,” Donohue wrote.
This story was originally posted at ALM affiliate ThinkAdvisior.com. All rights reserved.