In Washington, the Government Accountability Office is looking into the status of church-affiliated pension plans nationwide.
Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara says this is because of the media attention the St. Clare's case has been getting with 1,100 former workers have been without pension payments for years.
Assemblyman Santabarbara says his office learned of an ongoing investigation by the government accountability office during a meeting with staff from the Congressional Committee on Education and Workforce.
“This particular pension plan had a religious exemption that allowed them not to purchase insurance on it... Would've protected this pension plan.” said Santabarbara.
Congressional committee staff told the Assemblyman's office that there was traditionally limited oversight over these types of pension plans because they were exempt from oversight and reporting requirements.
Congress may take a new approach, because many 'church affiliated' organizations are dissimilar to the types of organizations congress was originally considering when it enacted regulatory language.