From today’s CNN News:
Julie Su, a civil rights attorney who has held numerous state and federal roles focused on labor issues, was formally nominated to be the next secretary of labor by President Joe Biden in late February 2023.
Su, currently the Department of Labor’s acting secretary, first joined the Biden administration in 2021 as the deputy secretary of labor. She was confirmed to the role with the unanimous support of Democrats in the Senate and no support from Republicans.
In her role as then-Labor Secretary Marty Walsh’s deputy, the Labor Department said she worked “as the de-facto chief operating officer for the department, overseeing its workforce, managing its budget and executing the priorities of the secretary of labor.”
After serving in the agency’s second-highest ranking role, Su, 54, became the acting secretary of labor upon Walsh’s departure from the administration earlier this year.
Su, a former California state government official who spent years representing low wage workers as a civil rights lawyer, was long seen as a frontrunner to permanently replace Walsh and was championed by a number of labor groups and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. If confirmed, Su would be the Biden administration’s first ever Asian-American Cabinet secretary.
During the Senate’s confirmation hearing considering her nomination, Republicans scrutinized Su over her policy record and what they argued was a lack of negotiation experience integral to the role.
Much like her first nomination to be deputy secretary, Su is not expected to have any support from Republican senators for the top labor role. And despite a Democratic majority within the Senate and past unanimous support for Su from senators in the party, some Democrats have yet to get on board with her nomination this time around.
Democrats’ noncommittal stance may be paving the way for a high-stakes nomination process.
If Su cannot convince enough senators to get on board with her nomination, she would be the highest-ranking political nominee yet to fail among a recent string of Biden picks who have withdrawn their nominations from consideration by the Senate due to a lack of support.
Read the complete story here.