[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 15 (Tuesday, January 23, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Page 7513]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-1891]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration


Disclosure Obligations Under ERISA; Notice of Extension of 
Comment Period

AGENCY: Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, Labor.

ACTION: Notice of extension of comment period.

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SUMMARY: This document reopens and extends the period for submitting 
information on the disclosure obligation of fiduciaries of employee 
benefit plans governed by ERISA. Comments were originally requested in 
a notice of request for information published in the Federal Register 
on September 14, 2000 (65 FR 55858). Under that notice, written 
comments from the public were requested to be submitted to the 
Department of Labor on or before January 12, 2001.

DATES: The period for submission of written comments to the Department 
of Labor is reopened and extended through February 22, 2001.

ADDRESSES: Comments (preferably, at least six copies) should be 
addressed to the Office of Regulations and Interpretations, Pension and 
Welfare Benefits Administration, Room N-5669, U.S. Department of Labor, 
Washington, DC 20210. Attention: Disclosure RFI. All comments received 
will be available for public inspection at the Public Disclosure Room, 
Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 
Room N-1513, 200 Constitution Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20210.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ellen Goodwin or Susan Lahne, Office 
of Regulations and Interpretations, Pension and Welfare Benefits 
Administration, Room N-5669, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, DC 
20210, telephone (202) 219-8671; or Patricia Arzuaga, Plan Benefits 
Security Division, Office of the Solicitor, Room N-4611, U.S. 
Department of Labor, Washington, DC 20210, telephone (202) 693-5625. 
These are not toll-free numbers.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On September 14, 2000, the Department of 
Labor (Department) published a request for information in the Federal 
Register (65 FR 55858) regarding the disclosure obligations of 
fiduciaries of employee benefit plans subject to the Employee 
Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). That notice requested 
information from the public as to whether it would be in the interest 
of plans and their participants and beneficiaries for the Department to 
undertake action to clarify the extent of fiduciary duties under ERISA 
regarding disclosure and the interaction of fiduciary duty with the 
specific disclosure requirements of Title I of ERISA. The request for 
information contained several specific questions and hypothetical 
factual scenarios and asked the public to address their written 
comments to these issues.
    The Department has received requests from some members of the 
public for additional time to prepare comments in response to the 
request for information. Due to the complexity of the issues presented, 
the Department believes it is appropriate to grant such additional 
time. Therefore, this notice reopens and extends the period during 
which comments on the disclosure obligations of plan fiduciaries may be 
submitted. Accordingly, comments on the questions discussed in the 
notice of request for information published in the Federal Register on 
September 14, 2000 (65 FR 55858) are requested to be submitted to the 
Department on or before February 22, 2001.

    Authority: 29 U.S.C. 1143; Secretary of Labor's Order No. 1-87, 
52 FR 13139.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 17th day of January 2001.
Leslie B. Kramerich,
Assistant Secretary, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration.
[FR Doc. 01-1891 Filed 1-22-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-29-P