Sponsors (4)
Requires DOL to annually report ERISA investigation metadata, mandates agreements/notice before providing adverse assistance in ERISA suits, and adds a policy promoting voluntary retirement plans.
The bill increases transparency and congressional oversight of ERISA enforcement and promotes voluntary employer-sponsored pensions—potentially improving retirement coverage—while imposing recurring administrative costs and reporting rules that could chill agency cooperation and risk weaker enforcement or inadvertent identification in small districts.
Middle-class workers and employees: a federal push to promote voluntary employer-sponsored pensions may expand retirement plan coverage and increase future retirement income security.
Taxpayers and Congress: regular, standardized reports on EBSA investigations and on when/how the Department provides assistance to private litigants give Congress better oversight of enforcement efficiency and agency interactions.
Employers, plan sponsors, and fiduciaries: advance written notice and detailed disclosures about government assistance to plaintiffs' attorneys increase transparency so affected plans can learn how government actions may affect them.
Employees and plan participants: broad reporting and a wide definition of 'adverse assistance' could chill routine information-sharing and cooperation between the Department and private counsel, weakening enforcement of ERISA protections.
Taxpayers and federal employees: recurring administrative burdens to compile, redact, and publish detailed reports will raise Labor Department costs and divert staff time from investigations and enforcement work.
Nonprofits and financial institutions: aggregated office-level reporting in small districts could allow stakeholders to infer which entities were investigated, risking de facto identification despite prohibitions on names.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Official title: Amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to require that the Employee Benefit Security Administration make annual reports to Congress on investigations relating to enforcement and on adverse interest agreements, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 21, 2026 by James E. Banks · Last progress April 21, 2026
Requires the Labor Department (EBSA) to produce annual, public reports listing metadata about ERISA investigations and enforcement actions (office, open date, first document request date, and whether concluded within 36 months). It also requires the Department to enter written agreements and share copies with potentially affected employers/plan sponsors before providing “adverse assistance” to DOJ or other attorneys in ERISA civil actions, and to report to Congress about those agreements. Finally, it adds an explicit congressional policy favoring and promoting voluntary establishment and maintenance of employer retirement plans.