The full Senate approved Preston Rutledge’s nomination to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) Friday.
The EBSA position has been vacant since the departure of Phyllis Borzi at the end of the Obama administration. Borzi is seen as the architect of the DOL’s controversial fiduciary rules. That baton has been passed to Rutledge, who will now oversee modifications of the regulation, which has seen its disclosure and enforcement components delayed twice, most recently until July 2019.
Rutledge has been tax and benefits counsel for the Senate Finance Committee since 2011. Before joining the Republican staff, he worked with the IRS’s tax-exempt and government entities division in Washington.
He has also worked in private practice as an employee benefits counselor and litigator.
Rutledge’s “strong experience as an attorney at the Internal Revenue Service and on Capitol Hill demonstrate his commitment to public service and desire for outcomes that will benefit both employees and employers,” ICI President and CEO Paul Schott Stevens said.
“Rutledge’s work to advance important, bipartisan retirement legislation is particularly noteworthy,” Stevens added.