Politics

Senate Committee Advances Biden’s Labor Sec Nominee For Second Time

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The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) voted to confirm President Joe Biden’s labor secretary nominee Julie Su for a second time on Tuesday, according to a press release obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In early January, Biden renominated Su, who has been serving as the acting Labor Secretary since Marty Walsh‘s departure in February 2023, after her confirmation stalled in the Senate last year. Su was confirmed by an 11-10 committee vote along partisan lines, once again sending her nomination to the floor for a full Senate vote, according to the press release.

“Since Julie Su’s first nomination hearing, the concerns over her leadership of DOL have only grown. Ms. Su has continued to build a troubling record as Acting DOL Secretary, implementing policies that promote large labor unions at the expense of workers and economic growth,” Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is the Senate HELP Committee’s ranking member, said in a statement.

“The HELP Committee should have been able to address these issues directly with Ms. Su to properly conduct its constitutional duty to oversee the president’s nominees. It is unacceptable that the HELP Chair denied committee members this opportunity,” Cassidy added.

The Senate HELP Committee previously voted 11-10 in favor of Su’s nomination in April 2023 along party lines. Along with Cassidy, GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mike Braun of Indiana, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Mitt Romney of Utah, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Ted Budd of North Carolina voted against Su.

Julie Su is not the impartial figure we need to run the Department of Labor #SayNoToSupic.twitter.com/l6bokwOg6M

— HELP Committee GOP (@GOPHELP) February 27, 2024

Su‘s confirmation was never taken up for a floor vote in the upper chamber, as Republicans opposed her nomination and Democrats needed the support from moderate Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana and independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who caucuses with Democrats. Manchin eventually came out against Su’s nomination in July.

Holdouts have cited concern over her record as deputy labor secretary and as secretary of California’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency under Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The Senate previously voted to confirm Su as deputy labor secretary in 2021 by a 50-47 floor vote, which Manchin, Tester, Sinema and other Democrats supported, but GOP senators opposed.