The U.S. Department of Labor has trimmed references to civil monetary penalties — and most references to criminal investigations — out of the Employee Benefits Security Administration budget proposal for 2027.

The administration of President Donald Trump is asking for $181.1 million in funding for EBSA for the coming year.

The new request is part of a large collection of documents associated with the Trump administration’s $8.1 trillion spending request for the federal government for 2027.

All of the requests are for the federal government’s own federal fiscal year 2027, which will start Oct. 1, 2026.

But EBSA — the DOL agency in charge of issues such as whether employers can put private credit assets on 401(k) plan menus and what happens when few of the mental health providers in a self-insured health plan’s provider directory are accepting new patients — now mentions the criminal provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act only in a section describing EBSA’s statutory responsibilities.

The 2027 budget proposal leaves out a section in the 2026 EBSA budget proposal that talked about EBSA’s enforcement program.

In 2026, EBSA noted that one focus of its investigative program has been a major cases program. It mentioned that it referred some cases to the DOL legal team for litigation.

This year, EBSA says nothing about major cases or the DOL’s legal team.

EBSA has included three new examples of ways it has helped benefit plan participants.

One refers to an effort by an EBSA advisor to help a patient with COBRA coverage who was about to have cancer surgery clear up confusion about her coverage.

Another refers to EBSA advisor calls that led to a plan helping an employer plan participant pay a $50,000 air ambulance bill.

A third refers to a $20 million settlement agreement involving allegations that a health plan administrator had “systematically and improperly denied patient claims for emergency room services and drug screenings.”

But EBSA also reported that the value of the No Surprises Act claim disputes it helped patients and providers resolve fell to $468.9 million in federal fiscal year 2025, from $544 million in federal fiscal year 2024.

What it means: EBSA might take a gentler approach to benefits law enforcement in 2027, but might not.

EBSA officials said in January that they hoped to crack down on barriers to mental health care and improve the No Surprises Act health claim dispute resolution system.

The 2027 federal budget: The Trump administration predicted in the spending and revenue supplements that come with the budget proposal that total federal revenue will increase 8.1% in 2027, to $5.9 trillion.

The $8.1 trillion spending total would be just 7.3% higher than the 2026 spending total.

But the deficit would still increase to about $2.2 trillion, from $2.1 trillion.

The deficit would amount to about 37% of federal revenue and 6.4% of U.S. gross domestic product, or national income.

This year, the deficit is on track to amount to 38% of federal revenue and 6.3% of $32.5 trillion in U.S. GDP.

The United States has a total net worth of about $225 trillion, and the 2027 federal deficit would amount to about 1% of total U.S. net worth.

The Affordable Care Act exchange system: The federal government interacts with employers through Affordable Care Act programs as well as through EBSA.

ACA rules set benefits standards for all employer health coverage that has been purchased or significantly modified since 2010, and some workers get health coverage directly through the ACA public exchange system — the government’s online supermarket for private health coverage.

The ACA exchange system generates about $2 billion per year in revenue from health insurance company user fees, data sales and other commercial activities.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2027 budget proposal shows that HHS has requested $2.134 billion in funding for parts of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that run the ACA exchange system and handle other ACA programs.

The request for 2027 is 1% higher than what HHS requested for the ACA programs for 2026 but 2% lower than what Congress provided for the programs for 2026, according to a comparison of the new proposal with the 2026 budget proposal.

Spending levels on most items in the new proposal appear to be similar to the levels included in the 2026 request.

One exception is exchange administration. Exchange administration spending could increase to $155.8 million, from $129 million.