According to an article on NAR’s website, the National Association of REALTORS® CEO Bob Goldberg was among a handful of trade association representatives invited to meet with U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia on Wednesday. Goldberg was selected to speak on behalf of America’s REALTORS® working as independent contractors during a conversation focused on association health plans and the department’s new association retirement plan rule.
The meeting came just two months after real estate industry executives—including Goldberg—met with acting Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella to discuss the direction of the department under new leadership. The department continues to rely on input from the real estate industry in the fight to protect its AHP rule, particularly as it looks to continue defending a legal challenge brought by a dozen state attorneys general.
“NAR has spent the past decade advocating for reform of health insurance markets that provide coverage to the self-employed and to small employers. These efforts have only intensified as nearly a quarter-million REALTORS® remain unable to secure affordable coverage in expensive individual ACA markets,” Goldberg said following Wednesday’s meeting.
NAR filed an amicus brief, a legal document filed by nonlitigants who have a strong interest in the subject matter, in defense of the department’s lower court appeal in early June. More than 200 state and local REALTOR® associations supported NAR’s opinion.