Employee Benefits Policy

Our Employee Benefits Policy practice provides strategic representation to clients before Congress and the federal agencies on health plan, retirement plan, executive compensation, and payroll practices. In some cases we work on an issue at a discrete stage in the legislative process, such as obtaining clarifying committee report language.  Other times we assist with an issue from the early phases of consideration by Congress through final rulemaking by the appropriate agency. Throughout, we focus on helping our clients navigate the political process to best advance their companies’ business strategies and objectives. With the entire team based in our Washington, DC office, our Employee Benefits Policy practice offers clients an “inside the Beltway” approach that relies on a combination of our unparalleled substantive expertise and ready access to and relationships with the regulators and Congress.

With respect to legislative matters, we typically provide clients with summaries and analysis of proposed legislation and draft legislative language.  We assist clients in developing policy positions and drafting position papers. We prepare testimony for Congressional hearings, and represent clients during meetings with Congressional members or staff. We also have experience managing and representing large coalitions of companies who choose to work together to advance a common goal on a specific issue. Our lawyers have worked closely with the Senate Committees on Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, as well as the House Committees on Education and Labor, Ways and Means, and Energy and Commerce.

Our Employee Benefits Policy practice also assists clients with regulatory matters, particularly as the agencies are developing new guidance or policy positions. To that end, we have provided written comments on proposed rulemaking, testified at public hearings, represented clients in meetings with agency staff, and worked to resolve specific issues of interpretation on behalf of our clients. We have worked closely with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Members of this practice include lawyers with a variety of government and policy experience. Our practice features a former Majority Tax Counsel for the House Committee on Ways & Means, among others.