The Senate confirmed Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be President Donald Trump’s labor secretary on Monday, with over a dozen Democrats backing the previous Home lawmaker.
The vote was 67 in favor of her nomination and 32 in opposition to.
The affirmation places a centrist Republican with a pro-union document in control of the Labor Division, liable for implementing office security guidelines and minimal wage and additional time rules.
Three Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in addition to Ted Budd of North Carolina — voted in opposition to Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination, whereas 18 Democrats voted in favor in a uncommon present of bipartisan help for certainly one of Trump’s Cupboard nominees. Actually, her nomination was saved in committee due to help from liberal senators.
Chavez-DeRemer represented Oregon’s fifth District for one time period earlier than shedding reelection final fall. She was among the many chamber’s few union-friendly Republicans and even co-sponsored a Democratic invoice aimed toward rejuvenating the labor motion and making it simpler for staff to prepare.
The Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters had pushed Chavez-DeRemer for the labor slot, with the union’s president, Sean O’Brien, recommending her to Trump. Chavez-DeRemer’s father had been a Teamster, and he or she cultivated help with Oregon unions in her run for the Home.
O’Brien beforehand stated Chavez-DeRemer “is aware of the significance of carrying a union card and what it means to develop up in a middle-class family.”
That sort of discuss — particularly when paired with Chavez-DeRemer’s Home document — drew some suspicion from Republican senators. She was certainly one of simply three Home Republicans within the final Congress to endorse the Defending the Proper to Arrange Act, a sweeping pro-union invoice that will, amongst different measures, nullify state “proper to work” legal guidelines.
Chavez-DeRemer ended up jettisoning her help for that provision throughout her affirmation listening to, which helped carry her with skeptical Republicans. However most GOP senators had been reluctant to cross Trump on a nomination anyway.
Democrats who supported Chavez-DeRemer stated they had been comforted by her statements in help of staff. In addition they stated she was essentially the most bipartisan-minded particular person Trump might have nominated to the put up, in comparison with extra conservative doable alternate options.
“These are onerous instances to be an govt, to run one of many govt companies. However that stated, [Chavez-DeRemer] can do an amazing quantity of fine with out pissing anyone off,” Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) told HuffPost.
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However different Democratic senators opposed Chavez-DeRemer in protest of the Trump administration’s dismantling of federal authorities companies and mass firing of civil servants, together with at key labor boards.
After Monday’s vote, Trump can have all his formal Cupboard confirmed per week earlier than former President Joe Biden did in March 2021. Republicans pushed onerous to approve all of Trump’s picks in document time, even controversial ones who confronted allegations of sexual misconduct and drunkenness.
