S. 1728 would require the Department of Labor (DOL) to create a new office and positions at DOL and to establish or expand the membership of several advisory bodies. Specifically, the bill would:
Add two members to the Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans;
Create the Advisory Council on Employee Ownership to advise the Secretary of Labor on employee ownership;
Create the Office of Employee Ownership to implement the Employee Ownership Initiative, a program created by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (part of P.L. 117-328) to encourage business ownership by workers; and
Create a new position within the Employee Ownership Initiative that would promote employee ownership and coordinate interactions between DOL and other agencies, employers, workers, and other interested parties.
DOL created the Division of Employee Ownership to implement the Employee Ownership Initiative, and CBO expects that the Division of Employee Ownership would be transformed into the new Office of Employee Ownership. However, because the Congress has not provided funds for the Division of Employee Ownership, CBO expects that additional appropriations would be needed to create the Office of Employee Ownership under S. 1728.
Using information from DOL, CBO estimates that implementing S. 1728 would cost $8 million over the 2026-2031 period assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts, mostly to establish the new office.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Noah Meyerson. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
