Department of Labor February 2, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains interim final rules implementing the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which requires parity between mental health or substance use disorder benefits and medical/surgical benefits with respect to financial requirements and treatment limitations under group health plans and health insurance coverage offered in connection with a group health plan.

The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a preclearance consultation program to provide the general public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA95) [44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)]. This program helps to ensure that requested data can be provided in the desired format, reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized, collection instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of collection requirements on respondents can be properly assessed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is soliciting comments concerning the proposed reinstatement of the ``Veterans Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS),'' to be conducted in July 2010, August 2011, and August 2012.

The Office of Labor-Management Standards proposes to amend its regulations which require labor organizations to file the Form T-1, Trust Annual Report, about certain trusts in which they are interested pursuant to the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA). The Department of Labor (Department) proposes to amend these regulations because it believes that the trust reporting required under the rule is overly broad and is not necessary to prevent the circumvention and evasion of the Title II reporting requirements. Moreover, the Department views separate trust reporting requirements as unnecessary, in part because the Department also proposes to return ``subsidiary organization'' reporting to the Form LM-2 reporting requirements, which it believes is necessary to satisfy the purposes of the LMRDA. Finally, in interpreting the definition of ``labor organization'' under the LMRDA, the Department proposes to return to its long held view that the statute's coverage does not encompass intermediate bodies that are wholly composed of public sector organizations. In so doing, the Department has reconsidered a definitional interpretation that it adopted in 2003, which the Department now considers to have been insufficiently supported during the rulemaking process. The Department seeks comment on each of these proposals.