House Committee Passes Bills to Require DOL Reports on Common Interest Agreements and EBSA Investigations

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce passed H.R. 2958, the Balance the Scales Act, which would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to require that the Department of Labor (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) submit an annual report to Congress on so-called “common interest agreements.” The issue first came to the forefront in Harrison v. Envision Management, No. 21–cv–00304–CNS–MD (D.C. Colo. Jan. 13, 2025), a case in which the plaintiff’s law firm received information from the DOL under a common interest agreement, even though the DOL was not a party to the suit. The attorneys for the defendants discovered the information-sharing only the night before an important deposition. The court ruled decisively against the DOL, and several members of Congress expressed concern about the practice.

The committee also passed H.R. 2869, the EBSA Investigations Transparency Act, which was introduced on April 10 by Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.). The bill requires an annual report to Congress on EBSA investigations. Both bills passed on party-line votes.