Despite advancing through the Senate committee process in early December, the nominee to lead the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) may be in jeopardy.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved the nomination of Lisa Gomez to serve as Assistant Secretary for EBSA at the Department of Labor on Dec. 2, on a near party-line vote of 12-10.
But the full Senate has not acted on her nomination, and prior to adjourning the first session of the 117th Congress for the holiday break, Gomez was among several nominees whose nominations will not be allowed to carry over into the second session. They must be resubmitted after the new session convenes in early January and the hearing/approval process repeated.
Gomez was nominated last July and a hearing was held by the Senate HELP Committee in October, but her nomination reportedly was held up after Republican members wanted to dig deeper into her views on environmental, social and corporate governance investing.
Gomez currently is a partner at labor law firm Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP, representing employer and union pension plans. She joined the firm in 1994, became a partner in 2002 and currently serves as Chair of the firm’s Management Committee.
This appears to be one of the longest periods in recent memory that EBSA has not had a Senate-confirmed nominee serving as Assistant Secretary at the outset of a new administration. Obama nominee Phyllis Borzi was confirmed in July 2009, while Trump nominee Preston Rutledge was confirmed in December 2017. Ali Khawar has been serving as EBSA Acting Assistant Secretary since the beginning of the Biden administration.
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