The new leader of the House Education and the Workforce Committee renewed a call for the Department of Labor’s inspector general to investigate allegations that DOL officials shared retirement plans’ confidential information with lawyers looking to file class-action lawsuits against their fiduciaries.
In November, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., who led the committee in the previous congressional session, initially requested the investigation, asserting the committee “has learned that the Department of Labor shared confidential information involving at least six employee benefit pension plans with a plaintiffs’ attorney.”
The DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration gathered such information during an investigation, according to Foxx. Michael R. Hartman, ERISA counsel for the DOL’s New York regional solicitor’s office, shared the information with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, “a law firm known for pursuing class action lawsuits involving benefits plans, to use in a lawsuit against a fiduciary of the plans,” Foxx wrote in a November letter to Larry Turner, DOL inspector general.
Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., on Jan. 23 formally reissued a request that Turner continue his investigation.
“As the committee begins its oversight for the 119th Congress, I request that the OIG continue to review the questions and concerns raised in the November 21, 2024, letter,” Walberg wrote. “Information from the OIG on this matter may provide important assistance to Congress in determining whether legislative changes are warranted.”
A representative for Cohen Milstein could not immediately be reached for comment Jan. 23, but Walberg's letter referenced a November statement from the law firm in which it said, "Common interest agreements between DOL and the private sector are common, legal and have been entered into by different administrations for decades."
A DOL spokesperson on Jan. 23 said the agency has no additional comment. In a November statement, the DOL said, "Common interest agreements are a well-established legal tool that recognize existing legal privileges. They are used by government and private litigants alike."
Foxx in her initial request called for the inspector general to investigate and publish a public report on the matter, specifically examining the number of times DOL officials have shared information from investigations with law firms, the names of those law firms and other related information.