Testimony by Secretary of Labor Perez on ESOPs
Executive Director
In testimony on March 26, Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez addressed the House Education and Labor Committee and said that he and the Department of Labor are "huge fans of ESOPs," and that they are "remarkably successful in empowering workers to have ownership." Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) expressed concern about the proposed rules for making ESOP appraisers fiduciaries, and Secretary Perez said that the motivation for the proposed rules are that "we have regrettably seen a number of cases where appraisals have been deliberately inflated." Secretary Perez said he would like to meet people from an ESOP company in Rep. Guthrie's district, and suggested meeting to find a solution to the excessive valuation. No transcript of the exchange is yet available, but it appears in the video of the testimony from minutes 1:19 to 1:22.