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DOL’s Fiduciary Proposal Now at OMB

Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night could keep the Department of Labor (DOL) from getting the updated conflict-of-interest/fiduciary regulation to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.

That’s right, despite the massive snowstorm that hit the Washington, D.C. area last week, the resulting two days of government closing due to the 30 inches or so of snow that blanketed the region, and two more days of delayed start, the OMB website shows that the regulation was delivered for its review on Jan. 28.

Before agency rules are published, they are reviewed by the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which has up to 90 days to act.

That date is critical to the implementation of the new rule. The DOL needs to finalize the rule by April or mid-May at the latest to prevent Congress from exercising its power to reject them under the 1996 Congressional Review Act. That law gives Congress 60 legislative days to reject, by a special swift procedure, any regulation it dislikes before the rule takes effect. President Obama can be expected to veto that action, of course, but should that 60-day review period run past his term in office, the next president might not — and if it’s a Republican, almost certainly not.

The proposed rule was at OMB last year from Feb. 23 until it was published on April 14.

The clock is now ticking.