Patrick McHenryChairman

WASHINGTON – The House today approved a resolution to stop the Obama administration’s controversial “fiduciary” regulation that will restrict access to and raise the cost of financial planning for lower and middle income Americans.

“Millions of Americans turn to financial advisors to help them plan and save for retirement, to send a child to college, or to start their own small business. These are some of the most personal and consequential decisions families make. The administration’s complicated red tape will just make that advice more costly and less available for workers and retirees with modest incomes,” said Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). “Congress must act to stop this misguided regulation that’s unfair to Americans who only want the freedom to plan for financial independence and the right to shape their own future.”

The resolution passed by the House today builds upon an earlier Financial Services Committee bill – the Retail Investor Protection Act sponsored by Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) – that passed the House in October 2015. That bill would have barred the Department of Labor from finalizing its fiduciary regulation until after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took action on the issue. The Department of Labor issued its final fiduciary rule on April 8.

The SEC is the agency that Congress designated to oversee and regulate the conduct of those providing investment advice, yet the Obama administration chose to bypass the independent SEC on this matter and defer to a Cabinet agency that has no expertise over the capital markets. As a result, the administration failed to properly take into account the harm the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule will have on Americans with low and moderate incomes. The SEC chair has warned that her agency could issue its own fiduciary rule that may end up conflicting with the Department of Labor’s regulation.