The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has announced the overhaul of its national enforcement projects for fiscal year 2026.
DOL’s national enforcement projects highlight “where it will focus its enforcement resources …to increase broad-based employee benefit plan compliance, address abusive practices and bad actors, and deliver results that increase security for participants and beneficiaries.” According to DOL, this year’s changes are “the most significant…made in recent years.”
Under the updated enforcement projects, investigators will prioritize cases related to:
Cybersecurity
Barriers to mental health and substance use disorder benefits
Protecting benefit distributions
Retirement asset management
Surprise billing, and
Criminal abuse of contributory benefit plans
DOL also noted that it will “continue its long-standing commitment to identifying abusive Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements (‘MEWAs’) and preventing fraudulent MEWA operators from opening new arrangements in other states.”
Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling noted that DOL’s enforcement powers “are broad and impact American workers, retirees, and their families through many stages of life. Because of that, it’s vitally important that our investigators focus on areas that we feel will produce the best results….By recalibrating the areas our investigators focus on, investigations will be more efficient, responsive, and prioritize serious misconduct rather than minor foot faults.”
However, DOL also noted that these enforcement priorities “do not restrict or limit in any way [its] discretion in carrying out responsibilities imposed on the Secretary of Labor by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.”
