Staff Cuts Have Hit Labor Benefits Agency Hard, Ex-Official Says

Staffing reductions at the Labor Department’s benefits regulator have put the agency at a “breaking point” as it attempts to oversee the nation’s vast retirement and health care benefits system, a former senior official said.

Timothy Hauser, who retired at the end of 2025 after a nearly 35-year career at DOL, said Thursday that decreased staffing over the past year has put a strain on resources at the Employee Benefits Security Administration, which oversees hundreds of thousands of retirement plans and nearly 3 million health benefit plans.

Hauser said EBSA, where he most recently served as deputy assistant secretary for ...