One vehement opponent of the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule will succeed another as chair of the House unit overseeing the DOL when the new congressional term starts in January.
North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx was selected Friday by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to succeed a fellow GOPer, Minnesota’s John Kline.
Kline has used the committee as a major congressional platform to attack the creation and implementation of the Labor Department’s best interest standard for pension plan advisors and has sponsored legislation unsuccessfully to stop it.
Foxx can be expected to continue his fight.
“The Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule will significantly impact the ability of Americans to receive advice on how to save for retirement and make it more difficult for businesses, in particular small businesses, to establish retirement plans,” Foxx said in a House floor speech last April.
She claims the DOL has overstepped its bounds by formulating and implementing the rule and charged the regulation will decrease investment options and increase costs for retirement savers.
The 73-year-old North Carolinian has been in the House since 2005.
The first bill she sponsored that became law (in 2006) let troops invest a portion of their combat pay in Individual Retirement Accounts.
Foxx was an educator before entering government as a North Carolina state senator in 1994. She has a bachelor’s, a master’s and a doctorate in education from public universities in her state.