During Thursday's House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) questioned Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer about behavioral benefits for workers.
00:00I thank the gentleman for his excellent example of efficient questioning and timekeeping.
00:06And now I recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Desaulier.
00:11Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I have a question for my last five seconds, so I'll save that.
00:17Madam Secretary, thank you so much for reaching out. I enjoyed our conversation yesterday.
00:22It was nice to find out that we were both fellow Teamsters, former Teamsters and small business owners.
00:27Two subjects that we talked about, three actually yesterday, that I hope you remember.
00:32First, that we're doing for multiple sessions now on the Health, Employment, Labor and Pension Subcommittee,
00:38of which I'm the ranking member with Mr. Allen, to deal with abuses in employer-based health insurance.
00:46Half of the American population roughly has that health insurance.
00:49And through multiple hearings and multiple sessions, we've seen that some providers are denying legally required
00:57claims from doctors and physicians that historically have been accepted without a lot of remedy
01:02unless the Department of Labor oversees the laws.
01:05So look forward to working with you on a bipartisan way to help employers and employees get what they paid for contractually.
01:13And then behavioral health, which is a passion of mine, having been a survivor of family suicide and addiction.
01:20And all the remarkable treatments in my lifetime we've been able to come up with would help people like my dad get the treatment they deserve to live full lives.
01:32And he was a treatment counselor.
01:33He had a master's degree when he took his life.
01:36So in regards to that, I'm discouraged by some of the proposals from the Department and the administration.
01:40Last month, the administration announced the Department of Labor will no longer enforce the 2024 Mental Health Parity Final Rule,
01:49which prevents health insurance policies from imposing stricter limitations on mental health and substance abuse disorder benefits
01:56than those on medical benefits.
01:59The president's 2026 budget for DOL cuts employee benefits security administration, EBSA, funding while allowing bipartisan funding from the No Surprises Act to expire.
02:12In addition, the DOL's budget, EBSA, would have just 640 full-time employees to oversee $14 trillion of plan assets held by 4 million employee benefit plans,
02:25covering over 150 million Americans.
02:29This is down from 1,000 staff in 2012, when the agency's mission was much smaller than it is today.
02:36So, Madam Secretary, have you done an analysis of what these cuts will do to the delivery of services to these Americans,
02:43almost half the population, that are legally to benefit from these under bipartisan law?
02:49Thank you, Congressman, and again for the conversation.
02:52While this is the preliminary budget of the president, I will be looking to work with Congress and, you know, ultimately Congress will determine the appropriations of what the final budget is.
03:01We want to make sure that we are, again, saving the American taxpayers' dollars that are used efficiently and that we modernize some of the current laws.
03:12Again, a lot of the executive orders, and I think the one that you mentioned, Executive Order 14219, in regards to rolling back rules that impose undue burdens without clear statutory backing.
03:25So, I will work with Congress, statutorily, if that is something they want to work with, then I will gladly work with your office and many others on the technical assistance for that.
03:34But other than that, understanding that we want to make sure that we are saving the American taxpayers and no undue burdens are done and addressing the issues that you are concerned about and many others are as well.
03:43And it's important to the economy and to the employer having their valued employees be able to get back to work, whether it's a medical situation or behavioral health one, benefits everybody, particularly the economy.
03:54And, obviously, foremost is the employee and their families.
03:59Well, again, the Department of Labor's goal is to have a higher labor participation workforce, and oftentimes there are incidences where people leave the workforce, and we want them to come back.
04:11We want to assure that they are able to do so, and we'll do that within compliance of the Department of Labor.
04:16And I know you know that, as I do, as a small business employer.
04:21I'd like to discuss another area.
04:23I'm about to introduce a bill to ensure that the principle of behavioral health parity extends not just to health insurance, but also disability insurance.
04:32The experts on ERISA Advisory Council made this recommendation.
04:35It's been supported by a number of companies, including Sun Life, a leading provider of disability insurance.
04:42Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a statement from Sun Life in support of extending parity into disability benefits.
04:52Without objection.
04:52Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:54Madam Secretary, will you commit to working with me and my colleagues on the committee to implement the ERISA Advisory Council's recommendation to improve disability insurance for people with behavioral health conditions?
05:07Absolutely. I will work with your office.
05:09Darn. That was my five-second question, and you answered it succinctly.
