Secretary Chavez-DeRemer Addresses Common Interest Agreements During Testimony on Capitol Hill — Inspector General Announces Investigation Into Controversial Practice

On Thursday, June 5th, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer testified at the House Committee on Education & Workforce about the Department of Labor’s budget request and priorities for Fiscal Year 2026, which begins October 1. During the question portion of the hearing following her opening remarks, Committee Chair Tim Walberg (MI) asked the Secretary about the practice of common interest agreements that has been occurring at the DOL. Common interest agreements refer to the sharing of privileged and confidential investigative information with plaintiffs’ attorneys pursuing class action lawsuits against plan fiduciaries.

Secretary Chavez-DeRemer responded that a leak by any agency is concerning, “when there’s allegations that confidential information would be leaked,” and that “under my leadership, this is unacceptable, and I would not tolerate it from anybody to leak that information.”

And on Friday, June 13th, the Office of the Inspector General of the DOL announced “an audit to review how the U.S. Department of Labor has shared investigative information with non-governmental entities involved in class action litigation.”

This news was welcomed by TEA, with President and CEO James Bonham saying, “The ESOP Association fully supports the Department of Labor Inspector General’s audit into how EBSA and other divisions share confidential investigative information with plaintiffs’ attorneys and other non-governmental entities. These so-called common interest agreements are abusive and undermine the public’s trust by denying due process for retirement plan sponsors. The Association applauds House Education & Workforce Chair Tim Walberg (MI) and past chair Virginia Foxx (NC) for calling attention to this practice, and we eagerly await the results of the investigation.”

Recently, volunteer advocates from The ESOP Association visited Capitol Hill offices for ESOP Advocacy Day and discussed this specific issue with their elected representatives. Advocates expressed support for the legislation recently introduced to combat this practice. HR 2958, the Balance the Scales Act, introduced by Rep. Michael Rulli (OH-06) would force reporting by the Department of Labor to Congress about the use of common interest agreements, in the hopes that much-needed transparency will help curtail the practice. 

Earlier this year Chair Walberg, in his letter to Inspector General Larry Turner, said common interest agreements are “a blatant abuse of the law,” and that “the plan sponsor community was unaware that EBSA was commonly feeding employee benefit plan information gathered during investigations to plaintiff law firms.”  Former Chairwoman Virginia Foxx had also previously sent a November letter where she stated, “EBSA must immediately take steps to protect the confidentiality of information gathered during investigations and to reassure employee benefits plan fiduciaries that their cooperation during investigations will not lead to coercive actions from plaintiffs’ attorneys.