The authority lines of senior staff in the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) are being restructured effective October 1, 2019 to shift supervision of a number of EBSA offices to Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Jeanne Klinefelter, a White House appointee.

EBSA is the lead agency tasked with ensuring compliance and enforcement of retirement, health and other workplace related benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The changes will place the following EBSA offices under the authority of Klinefelter:

• Office of Regulations and Interpretations;
• Office of Exemption Determinations;
• Office of Health Plan Standards and Compliance Assistance; and 
• Office of Policy Research. 

A yet-to-be-named new Senior Executive Service (SES) level Deputy Assistant Secretary position is being created to oversee EBSA's regional offices. 

EBSA announced the changes in an internal email earlier this week that included a chart outlining the new structure. The chart is posted here.

The internal email noted that the new structure "will provide expanded opportunity for career advancement, give the Regional Offices a greater voice in the National Office, and help ensure that enforcement activities are consistent nationwide," according to Assistant Secretary Preston Rutledge, who heads EBSA.

In related news, EBSA today announced that the ERISA Advisory Council will hold its next meeting via teleconference on September 25, 2019. More information on this meeting is posted here.

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