House panel examines Labor Department information-sharing practices after watchdog findings

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House panel reviews Labor info-sharing

Highlights

The Department of Labor Inspector General finds the Biden-Harris DOL failed to safeguard or track confidential investigative information and shared sensitive materials with outside lawyers before litigation.
Watchdog review exposes lack of oversight safeguards, potential conflicts of interest, and confirms bipartisan House Committee concerns regarding public trust and enforcement fairness in DOL practices.
Rep. Mark Messmer introduces the Ethical Investigations and Integrity Act to establish new protocols for protecting confidential DOL information shared with external attorneys in civil cases.

Watchdog findings and congressional response

As reported by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections holds a hearing with Department of Labor Inspector General Anthony P. D’Esposito on findings that the Biden-Harris DOL improperly shared confidential investigative information with outside parties.

The Inspector General finds that the department failed to protect confidential investigative information, could not track what was shared or with whom, and shared sensitive material with outside lawyers before lawsuits even began. The review also finds the department lacked basic safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest.

Subcommittee Chairman Ryan Mackenzie says the Committee's oversight work prompted the investigation after it uncovered an incident in November 2024 involving the handling of an ERISA investigation. He says the Committee initially focused on the Employee Benefits Security Administration's use of common interest agreements, before the Office of Inspector General expanded its review to similar practices in the Wage and Hour Division and the Office of the Solicitor.

According to testimony cited at the hearing, the published watchdog report confirms the Committee's concerns and raises broader questions about fairness and public trust in the department's enforcement process. Republican lawmakers at the hearing argue the findings show the government can be used to advance outside agendas rather than act impartially.

Policy implications for labor oversight

Chairman Tim Walberg points to one example involving a Biden appointee and senior counsellor to then-Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, saying the official entered a common interest agreement with DOL before joining the department and later shared information with a previous employer, Yale Law School. D'Esposito says the case illustrates why the watchdog recommends affidavits requiring staff involved in such agreements to confirm compliance with post-employment rules.

D'Esposito also tells lawmakers that the core problem is the absence of clear guardrails and accountability, with some personnel involved in common interest agreements not fully understanding what those agreements were. The article says leadership at the Trump DOL has accepted the watchdog's recommendations aimed at preventing a repeat of the information-sharing failures.

Rep. Mark Messmer uses the hearing to highlight the Ethical Investigations and Integrity Act, which he says he introduces later in the day. The bill would set protocols for the Labor Department to protect confidential information shared with outside attorneys in potential civil actions involving laws enforced by the Wage and Hour Division.

In our earlier article, we covered a House hearing on FinCEN’s oversight agenda, including how the agency can strengthen anti-money-laundering enforcement while reducing unnecessary compliance burdens on financial institutions. Lawmakers also pushed for modernizing Bank Secrecy Act reporting thresholds and raised privacy concerns about beneficial ownership data that remains in the government’s control.

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