Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia can participate in the department’s rewrite of a closely watched investment-advice rule, career government ethics attorneys said yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Scalia, a former Washington lawyer, assumed the cabinet position a month ago and whether he could participate in the Labor Department’s rulemaking on financial advice was an open question. He had previously handled a legal challenge to the Obama administration’s version of the regulation, known as the fiduciary rule. Government ethics rules can prevent officials from participating in issues they were involved in while in the private sector to guard against potential conflicts of interest. The Labor Department’s career ethics attorneys determined that neither applicable ethics rules nor the Trump administration’s ethics pledge required Mr. Scalia’s recusal, Kate O’Scannlain, the department’s solicitor, said. “The new rulemaking is not a ‘particular matter involving specific parties’ and litigation related to a prior rule which the secretary handled while in private practice has ended,” she said in a statement. She said that the Office of Government Ethics concurred with the department’s analysis. At issue is an Obama-era regulation on retirement advice that a federal appeals court struck it down last year. Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, handled the case, arguing on behalf of the financial-services industry.
