“I think she’ll be a very good labor secretary, and we’re working hard to get her approved,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says of Labor nominee Julie Su. (Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg News)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer continues to support the nomination of Julie Su for secretary of labor amid pushback from Senate Republicans.
A floor vote on Su’s nomination has not been scheduled since her committee approval in April. She currently serves as acting secretary at the Labor Department.
“I think she’ll be a very good labor secretary, and we’re working hard to get her approved,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Capitol Hill on July 11.
Last month, nearly three dozen Republican senators called on President Joe Biden to withdraw Su’s nomination to lead the Labor Department. “Her track record and unwillingness to provide clarity to her past positions and the actions she would take as secretary of labor continue to raise concerns about her nomination,” the senators wrote Biden on June 20.
Su
American Trucking Associations is among the groups opposing her nomination. At issue is Su’s record specific to a California law known as AB 5. That law sets conditions for employers to reclassify independent contractors as employees.
ATA President Chris Spear recently wrote to Schumer and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): “As we highlighted in a March letter to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, we have grave concerns over Ms. Su’s role in implementing California’s disastrous [AB 5], which essentially outlawed this business model for trucking.”
Spear
Su’s background from the Labor Department highlights her tenure at the state-level agency: “As California labor commissioner from 2011 through 2018, Su enforced the state’s labor laws to ensure a fair and just workplace for both employees and employers. A report on her tenure released in May 2013 found that her leadership resulted in a renaissance in enforcement activity and record-setting results.”
If confirmed by the Senate, she would succeed former Secretary Marty Walsh, who left the Biden administration to become executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association.
