House subcommittee hears dueling claims over EBSA’s investigative practices, secret information sharing and funding shortfalls

At a House Education and Labor Subcommittee hearing, lawmakers and witnesses clashed over allegations that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) secretly shared investigative materials with private plaintiffs’ attorneys and over competing proposals to require more transparency — even as witnesses warned that recent budget cuts and staff losses have already slowed EBSA investigations.

The dispute matters to millions of Americans: witnesses and members repeatedly noted that more than 800,000 private, ERISA-covered retirement plans collectively hold roughly $9 trillion in assets and cover more than 70 million workers and their families, and that delays or flawed enforcement can affect benefits and health coverage nationwide.

Attorney Lars Golombek, principal at Groom Law Group, told the subcommittee that documents produced in litigation show the department provided confidential findings and coordinated with class‑action lawyers, a practice a federal magistrate described as enabling litigation “in the shadows.” Golombek said his firm discovered an unredacted findings letter showing the Department of Labor had supplied information to a plaintiffs’ firm “pursuant to a common interest agreement,” and that the…