On May 24, 2016, Senator Deb Fischer voted for a resolution to overturn an Obama administration effort by the US. Department of Labor to regulate the conduct of investment advisors who counsel people on their retirement plans. The Obama-era plan, called the DOL fiduciary rule, was designed to set standards for putting retiree’s interests first. Working and middle-class Americans lose $17 billion a year in retirement savings due to advice that favors the advisor’s, not the client’s interests.
Supporters of the rule argued that by rolling it back, Republicans were only working to benefit financial firms. Then-Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said “the only people who oppose it are the investment advisors who are putting money in their own pocket.” Americans for Financial Reform also defended the proposed regulation, saying the rule “simply says that financial professionals who claim to offer honest, unbiased advice on retirement savings should actually have to do that. The motive for this resolution is not a genuine concern about the well being of retirement savers. Instead, some Wall Street salespeople and their firms are worried about losing out on the billions of dollars in excess profits they have been making by recommending investment products that serve their own interests.”
The DOL’s fiduciary rule was set to take effect on June 9, 2017 but that did not happen. On November 27, 2017, the Trump administration announced that the rule would have an 18-month extension from January 1, 2018 to July 1, 2019. Meanwhile, as Bloomberg reported in 2017, “five separate lawsuits now attack the rule from seemingly every angle.”
Among the organizations that spearheaded the legal challenges to the fiduciary rule are several of Fischer’s campaign donors. The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors has poured $22,000 into Fischer’s campaign coffers since between 2014-2024. Also joining the effort to sue to overturn the rule was the Financial Services Roundtable and the American Council of Life Insurers. In 2012, the Financial Services Roundtable donated $1,000 to Fischer, while American Council of Life Insurers coughed up $12,000 between 2018 and 2022. The US. Chamber of Commerce also fought hard to kill the rule. The Chamber contributed a total of $10,000 to Fischer for her previous Senate races in 2012 and 2018. One of the key players who led the lobbying strategy to kill the fiduciary rule on Capitol Hill was Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, and international law firm with 31 offices worldwide. Bryan Cave has shelled out $6,000 in campaign cash to Fischer between 2012-2024. Source: www.opensecrets.org
It is votes like this that have earned Fischer a paltry lifetime score of 8% from the Alliance for Retired Americans.