UPDATED 10:55 a.m. 5/30/17: Politico Pro now says that Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta will NOT attend the meeting scheduled today with organizations that have been critical of the fiduciary regulation.
Having weathered some controversy over his stance on the fiduciary regulation, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta is reportedly scheduling meetings with both advocates and critics of the rule, beginning today.
Politico Pro reports that Acosta is scheduled to have a closed-door meeting today with a group of organizations opposed to the fiduciary regulation, including the Financial Services Roundtable, the Investment Company Institute, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the American Bankers Association. The report cited a source “familiar with the matter,” but also that a Labor Department spokesman said a broad range of stakeholders involved with the rule were invited.
A second session will include the fiduciary rule's supporters, but details about who will participate could not be learned, Politico Pro reported, citing “a source.”
It was only a week ago that Acosta went on record in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal stating that having “found no principled legal basis to change the June 9 date while we seek public input,” the fiduciary regulation would take effect on June 9. However, he also noted that “trust in Americans’ ability to decide what is best for them and their families leads us to the conclusion that we should seek public comment on how to revise this rule.”
Earlier in May NAPA Net reported that Acosta recently expressed his intention to freeze the rule in a way that would “stick” in a conversation with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). That report triggered a written response to Acosta from Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Corey Booker (D-NJ) encouraging him to wait for the outcome of the Labor Department’s analysis of the rule.
