EBSA Budget Request for FY26 Down 5% from FY25

The Employee Benefits Security Administration has requested a slimmer budget and fewer employers for fiscal 2026, adhering to President Donald Trump’s goal to reduce the size and scope of the federal government.

EBSA’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal requested $181 million, down $10 million (5.2%) from $191 million in fiscal 2025. The agency also requested 47 fewer full-time employees, shrinking its workforce to 640 from 687, a 6.8% reduction.

Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer will testify Thursday before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce about the Department of Labor’s budget and priorities during a hearing titled, “Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Labor.”

In releasing its budget proposal, EBSA stated that the reduction is “consistent with the comprehensive plan for reforming the federal government to ensure greater efficiency.”

EBSA is a division of the DOL responsible for administering, regulating and enforcing the provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

A 2023 report by the Government Accountability Office found that EBSA faced budget constraints as its responsibilities grew—despite having a flat budget for nearly a decade—with passage of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022.

Meanwhile, a separate DOL agency, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which provides financial assistance to distressed pension plans, requested a $21.8 million budget in fiscal 26, down from $38.9 million in fiscal 25. The proposal would also see its full-time employees shrink to 924 from 1,012.

As part of EBSA’s cuts, the agency will eliminate the nearly $26 million in funding for the No Surprises Act, which took effect in 2022, intended to protect consumers from surprise medical bills.

In the budget proposal, the agency stated it had only one investigator for every 17,500 plans, meaning that “EBSA cannot audit even a fraction of ERISA covered plans in any given year, nor can it pursue every important issue that arises under the statute through investigation and litigation.”

However, EBSA’s “Major Case program” was one example of how it “seeks to have a large impact on a vast plan universe, despite its small size.”

“Under the Major Case program, EBSA focuses its efforts on investigations that are designed to have the greatest impact on the protection of plan assets and participants’ benefits,” the budget request stated. “This includes cases involving professional fiduciaries and service providers that are responsible for large numbers of plans and large amounts of plan assets and benefits. By correcting problems that simultaneously affect hundreds or thousands of plans, EBSA can make its limited resources go further.”