Senate confirms Lisa Gomez as assistant secretary of Labor, EBSA head

She takes the helm of the agency that oversees employee retirement plans as it is writing another iteration of an investment advice rule.

The Senate Thursday confirmed the Department of Labor official who will have direct responsibility for writing the agency’s pending investment advice rules for retirement accounts.

More than a year after she was nominated by the Biden administration, Lisa Gomez is now the assistant secretary of Labor and head of the Employee Benefits Security Administration, which regulates worker benefits including health coverage and retirement plans. The Senate approved her for the position by a 49-36 vote.

Gomez, a partner at the labor law firm Cohen Weiss and Simon, assumes the EBSA helm as the division is working on a pending rule proposal to expand the definition of fiduciary for retirement savings investment advice, including rollovers from 401(k) to individual retirement accounts. A previous version of the rule written during the Trump administration went into force earlier this year.

The agency also is developing a proposed rule that encourages plan sponsors to consider environmental, social and governance factors in selecting investments, and another proposal on ESG and proxy voting.

“Ms. Gomez is coming to the job with decades of practical, real world experience and an opportunity to leave her mark on federal policy,” Michael Kreps, principal at Groom Law Group, wrote in an email. “We don’t know yet what her positions are on controversial issues like the fiduciary rule and changes to the [qualified professional asset manager] exemption. However, we do know that she understands how retirement plans work and will be able to assess how law changes could impact all of the stakeholders in the system.”

Trade associations are eager to talk to Gomez now that she soon will be on board at DOL.

“We can’t speak to the Department’s internal rulemaking timetables, but we look forward to meeting with Assistant Secretary Gomez in the near future to share our views on a number of regulatory matters and offering to be a resource to her and her team,” Dan Zielinski, spokesman for the Insured Retirement Institute, wrote in an email.

Even for a Senate that can drag its feet on nominations, Gomez’s journey to confirmation was tortuous. She was originally nominated in July 2021. When she wasn’t confirmed before the end of last year, she had to be renominated. Another confirmation vote failed in June.

“It should have happened long ago,” said Carl Tobias, a professor of law at the University of Richmond. “It’s good to have a permanent person in that position. There’s a lot that flows from that — more continuity. The president needs to have his people” in place.

One of Gomez’s Senate champions was glad to see her finally confirmed.

“It was important to me EBSA have an experienced leader like Ms. Gomez given its massive responsibilities helping retirees recover the benefits they are entitled to, enforcing protections for people who get their health care coverage through their job, and overseeing millions of retirement plans, health plans, and other welfare benefit plans,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and chairman of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement.