A resolution to block the Department of Labor from implementing its finalized fiduciary rule passed out of the House Education and the Workforce Committee on a party-line vote.
Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Virginia, ranking member of the Committee and one of the 14 Democrats to vote no on the resolution, said the markup session to pass the resolution was rushed, and claimed it was the shortest time span ever between a regulation’s finalization and the initiation of a resolution to stop it, citing the Congressional Research Services.
The resolution now moves to a House vote.
The Senate is also expected to vote on a companion resolution. If and when it passes both chambers, President Obama is expected to veto it.
That the resolution failed to attract any support from Democrats in the markup session is indicative of the difficulty Republicans will have in overriding a Presidential veto, which will require a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress.
Last year, scores of Democrats voiced concerns over the proposed version of the fiduciary rule.
In today’s mark up session, Rep. John Kline, R-Minnesota and chair of the committee, referenced those concerns, suggesting the effort to stop implementation of the final rule was bipartisan.
Jared Polis, D-Colorado, a committee member and one of those Democrats to voice concerns over the rule’s proposed version, was among the members to vote no on the resolution.
Rep. Kline called the changes to the proposal made in the final rule “modest,” and said it is still “fundamentally flawed,” reiterating Republican opponents’ longstanding claim that the rule will ultimately harm low and middle-income Americans by pricing them out of the advisory market.
The “wealthiest Americans won’t feel a thing,” as a result of the rule, said Kline. “They can afford to pay for the higher level of service and advice” the rule will require, he said.
Calling the final regulation too expansive, complex and restrictive, Kline, who is set to retire at the end of this Congressional session, said there is “little doubt it will be a significant obstacle to retirement security that every family deserves.”