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OMB Could Get Fiduciary Regulation Soon

The Labor Department is pushing to get the revised version of its fiduciary rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by the end of the month, according to published reports.

The Labor Department 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, which 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 — if it’s a Republican, almost certainly not.

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

Politico, citing two unnamed sources, said that DOL was racing to meet a January 31 deadline to advance the final version of its fiduciary rule to the OMB. That timing is in line with what’s been expected for this last procedural step in finishing the rule, though one of Politico’s sources said the rule could be sent to OMB as soon as this week, and both acknowledged that the timing might slip into February.

And that’s not considering the snowfall anticipated for the Washington, DC area this weekend.

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