Can Erisa Budget be used for VCP expenses?

[khn]

If a plan is going through a VCP filing, can the filing and/or legal expenses be paid from the Erisa Budget?
I'm having a hard time determining if this is considered a settlor's expense or not.

[Peter Gulia]

Even if a correction expense otherwise might be a proper plan-administration expense, a fiduciary should not authorize the payment or reimbursement of the expense from the plan's assets if instead the expense should be met through a fiduciary's liability under ERISA section 409 to make good the plan's losses that result from the fiduciary's breach.

It is possible that a plan-qualification defect happened without any fiduciary having breached his, her, or its responsibility. But much more often a defect happens because, at least in part, a fiduciary breached a duty. In those situations, the breaching fiduciary should bear the correction expense.