WASHINGTON, March 15, 2024 – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) responded today to the request for information (RFI) from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, which sought feedback on ways to build upon and strengthen the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which covers an estimated 153 million employees and their dependents, and serves as the foundation of employer-sponsored health care and retirement benefits.
In ERIC’s response to Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, ERIC concurs that ERISA preemption must be protected from state regulation, as preemption provides employer plan sponsors with the flexibility and autonomy to create benefits plans that best serve their workforce and their families coast-to-coast, rather than on a state-by-state basis.
ERIC’s response implores the preservation of protections from conflicting state mandates and warns that any erosion of ERISA preemption would cause a growing patchwork of inconsistent state and local laws that will make it impossible for employers to design and efficiently administer consistent, uniform, and equitable benefits for all employees regardless of work location.
“ERIC commends Chair Foxx on her efforts to seek ways to strengthen and preserve ERISA as the foundation of employer-sponsored health benefits, and to ensure that working families can access uniform and affordable health benefits no matter where they live or work,” said James Gelfand, President and CEO of ERIC. “The very foundation of ERISA is national uniformity and preemption from state regulation, and ERIC is committed to opposing the erosion of ERISA by state mandates on self-insured companies that offer ERISA plans.”
In addition to preemption, ERIC’s letter seeks to address other aspects of the RFI that have evolved over the 50 years of the law, including expanding fiduciary responsibility, streamlining reporting, enhancing data sharing to ensure plan sponsors have access to their own plan data, and improving and streamlining cybersecurity rules.
A copy of ERIC’s letter to the Committee can be found here.