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OMB Could Get Fiduciary Regulation Soon

The Department of Labor (DOL) is pushing to get the revised version of its fiduciary rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by the end of January, according to published reports.

The DOL needs to finalize the rule by April or mid-May at the latest to prevent Congress from exercising its power to reject them under the 1996 Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress 60 legislative days to reject, by a special swift procedure, any regulation it dislikes before the rule takes effect. President Obama can be expected to veto that action, of course, but should that 60-day review period run past his term in office, the next president might not — if it’s a Republican, almost certainly not.

Before agency rules are published, they are reviewed by the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which has up to 90 days to act. The proposed rule was at the OMB last year from Feb. 23 until it was published on April 14.

Politico, citing two unnamed sources, said that DOL was racing to meet a Jan. 31 deadline to advance the final version of its fiduciary rule to the OMB. That timing is in line with what’s been expected for this last procedural step in finishing the rule, though one of Politico’s sources said the rule could be sent to OMB as soon as this week, and both acknowledged that the timing might slip into February.

And that’s not considering the heavy snowfall anticipated for the Washington, DC area Jan. 22-24.