Employee Benefits Security Administration 2022 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Labor (Department) is adopting amendments to the Investment Duties regulation under Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA). The amendments clarify the application of ERISA's fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty to selecting investments and investment courses of action, including selecting qualified default investment alternatives, exercising shareholder rights, such as proxy voting, and the use of written proxy voting policies and guidelines. The amendments reverse and modify certain amendments to the Investment Duties regulation adopted in 2020.

This document contains a notice of exemption issued by the Department of Labor (the Department) from certain of the prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA or the Act) and/or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code). This exemption permits the sale (the Sale) of certain illiquid private fund interests (the Interests) by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Pension Plan for Union-Represented Employees (the Plan or the Applicant) to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Foundation (the Foundation).

This document gives notice of a proposed amendment to Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2002-51, an exemption for certain transactions identified in the Department's Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFC Program or VFCP). The VFC Program allows persons who may have engaged in a breach of fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to correct the breach and avoid certain Department of Labor-initiated civil actions and assessment of civil penalties. PTE 2002-51 (the VFCP Class Exemption) is a related class exemption that provides an exemption from excise taxes imposed by the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, for certain eligible transactions corrected pursuant to the VFC Program. This amendment to the VFCP Class Exemption is being proposed in connection with the Department's amendment and restatement of the VFC Program, published elsewhere in today's issue of the Federal Register (2022 Program Notice). If granted, the amendment to the VFCP Class Exemption would affect plans, participants and beneficiaries of such plans, and certain other persons engaging in such transactions.

As discussed in the DATES section below, the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is announcing that it has posted the transcript of the virtual public hearing regarding the proposed amendment to its exemption procedure regulation online and determined the closing date for the proposed amendment's reopened comment.

This document gives notice of the Department's Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis for a proposed amendment to prohibited transaction class exemption 84-14 (the QPAM Exemption).

This document contains an Interpretive Bulletin (IB) setting forth guidelines for determining when a qualified public accountant is independent for purposes of auditing and rendering an opinion on the financial statements required to be included in the annual report filed with the Department of Labor (Department) under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA). Under ERISA, a plan administrator is generally required to retain, on behalf of all plan participants, an ``independent qualified public accountant'' to conduct an annual examination of the plan's financial statements and to render an opinion as to whether the financial statements are presented fairly in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and whether the schedules required to be included in the plan's annual report present fairly, and in all material respects the information contained therein when considered in conjunction with the financial statements taken as a whole. The purpose of this document is to revise and restate an IB the Department issued in 1975 on accountant independence in order to remove certain outdated and unnecessarily restrictive provisions and reorganize its provisions for clarity while continuing to ensure that the Department's interpretations foster proper auditor independence and access of employee benefit plan to highly qualified auditors and audit firms.

This document includes final rules under the No Surprises Act, which was enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA). The document finalizes certain disclosure requirements relating to information that group health plans, and health insurance issuers offering group or individual health insurance coverage, must share about the qualifying payment amount (QPA) under the interim final rules issued in July 2021, titled Requirements Related to Surprise Billing; Part I (July 2021 interim final rules). Additionally, this document finalizes select provisions under the October 2021 interim final rules, titled Requirements Related to Surprise Billing; Part II (October 2021 interim final rules), to address certain requirements related to consideration of information when a certified independent dispute resolution (IDR) entity makes a payment determination under the Federal IDR process.

The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) will hold a virtual public hearing regarding the proposed amendment to its prohibited transaction exemption filing and processing procedures. EBSA welcomes requests from the general public to testify at the hearing. As discussed in the DATES section below, the Department of Labor (the Department) also is reopening the comment period regarding the proposed amendment to its prohibited transaction exemption filing and processing procedures.

The Department of Labor (the Department), in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, provides the general public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and continuing collections of information. This helps the Department assess the impact of its information collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. It also helps the public understand the Department's information collection requirements and provide the requested data in the desired format. The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is soliciting comments on the proposed extension of the information collection requests (ICRs) contained in the documents described below. A copy of the ICRs may be obtained by contacting the office listed in the ADDRESSES section of this notice. ICRs also are available at reginfo.gov (https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain).

This document contains notices of pendency before the Department of Labor (the Department) of proposed exemptions from certain of the prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA or the Act) and/or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code). If granted, these proposed exemptions allow designated parties to engage in transactions that would otherwise be prohibited provided the conditions stated there in are met. This notice includes the following proposed exemptions: D- 12031, Midlands Management Corporation 401(k) Plan; D-12012, The DISH Network Corporation 401(k) Plan and the EchoStar 401(k) Plan; D-12048, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Pension Plan for Union- Represented Employees.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI), in furtherance of the Executive Order on Climate-Related Financial Risk, to solicit public input on EBSA's future work relating to retirement savings and climate- related financial risk. EBSA's efforts will focus on agency actions that can be taken under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the Federal Employees' Retirement System Act of 1986 (FERSA), and any other relevant laws, to protect the life savings and pensions of U.S. workers and families from the threats of climate- related financial risk.

This document provides notice of the pendency before the Department of Labor (the Department) of a proposed individual exemption from certain of the prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and/or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the Code). If this proposed exemption is granted, certain entities with specified relationships to Credit Suisse AG (CSAG) and Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Limited (CSSEL) will not be precluded from relying on the exemptive relief provided by Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 84-14, notwithstanding the judgments of conviction against CSAG and CSSEL, described below.