The Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to confirm as U.S. labor secretary, a Cabinet position that would put her in charge of enforcing federally mandated worker rights and protections at a time when the White House is trying to .
Chavez-DeRemer would oversee the Department of Labor, one of several executive departments named challenging the authority of billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to order layoffs and access sensitive government data.
The Labor Department had nearly 16,000 full-time employees and a proposed budget of $13.9 billion for fiscal year 2025. Some of its vast responsibilities include reporting the U.S. unemployment rate, regulating workplace , investigating minimum wage, child labor and overtime pay disputes, and applying laws on union organizing and unlawful terminations.
Several prominent , including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, endorsed Chavez-DeRemer's nomination. The former Republican congresswoman from Oregon is the daughter of a Teamster, and during her one term in the House earned a reputation as pro-labor.
During her confirmation hearing before the , several Republican senators grilled Chavez-DeRemer about her decision to co-sponsor legislation that would have made it easier for and penalized employers who stood in the way of organizing efforts.
She declined to explicitly state whether she still backed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, also known as the PRO Act.
Chavez-DeRemer explained she had signed on as a co-sponsor because she wanted a seat at the table to discuss important labor issues. Under further questioning, she walked back some of her support of the bill, saying that she supported state 鈥渞ight to work鈥� laws, which allow employees to refuse to join a union in their workplace.
The PRO Act did not come up for a vote during her time in Congress. Chavez-DeRemer also co-sponsored legislation which sought to protect public-sector workers from having their benefits docked because of government pension benefits. That bill also stalled because it didn't have enough Republican support.
Chavez-DeRemer walked a fine line , attempting to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans. On the subject of whether the federal minimum wage was overdue for an increase, she said she recognized it hadn't been raised from $7.25 an hour since 2009 but that she would not want to 鈥渟hock the economy.鈥�
Some Democratic senators and workers鈥� rights advocates have questioned how much independence Chavez-DeRemer would have as President Donald Trump's labor secretary and where her allegiance would lie in an administration that has fired thousands of federal employees.
Cathy Bussewitz, The Associated Press
