The House Financial Services Committee approved legislation today on largely partisan lines that would halt the Department of Labor’s efforts to strengthen protections for retirement savers and erect new barriers in the way of long-delayed Securities and Exchange Commission rulemaking to impose a fiduciary standard on broker-dealers when they provide retail investment advice. CFA Director of Investor Protection Barbara Roper issued the following statement in response to the vote approving H.R. 1090, the “Retail Investor Protection Act”:
“Today’s vote forces us to choose between seeing the glass as half-full or half-empty. Certainly it is disappointing that a majority of Committee members voted in favor of a bill that would call a halt to regulatory efforts to ensure that all retirement savers get advice that serves their best interests. And the pretense that this is being done to protect retail investors is particularly galling,” Roper said. “On the other hand, all but one Committee Democrats voted against a measure that once claimed strong bipartisan support. Clearly, Democratic support for the Department of Labor rulemaking has solidified as members have recognized that the rule that has been proposed is balanced, that the Department is open to making reasonable changes to make the rule more flexible and streamlined, and that retirement savers cannot afford to wait for an SEC rulemaking that may never come. We are grateful to the many members of the Committee who voiced strong support for the DOL effort.
“Working families and retirees who turn to financial professionals for help with their retirement investments deserve advice that is in their best interests. The Department of Labor has offered a strong and effective rule to achieve that goal. We urge Congress to reject this and similar efforts to prevent them from finalizing a rule.”
Contact: Barbara Roper, (719) 543-9468
The Consumer Federation of America is a nonprofit association of more than 250 nonprofit consumer groups that was established in 1968 to advance the consumer interest through research, advocacy, and education.