Julie Su nomination for U.S. Labor Secretary should be pulled
Four months after President Joe Biden nominated former California Labor Secretary Julie Su to serve as U.S. Labor Secretary, Su’s nomination remains stagnant in the U.S. Senate.
Despite Democratic control of the Senate, Su’s nomination remains on hold as at least three moderates in the Democratic caucus — Sens. Joe Manchin,D-West Virginia, Jon Tester, D-Montana, and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Arizona — are perceived as reluctant to support her.
Su carries considerable baggage from her time as California Labor Secretary. Most notably, it was Su who oversaw the Employment Development Department during COVID, which not only botched the handling of unemployment checks to those legitimately in need, but also managed to pay out tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent payments. This included payments to prisoners on California’s death row.
Su was also a backer of the horrific Assembly Bill 5 which gutted independent contracting in California. Trucking groups in particular have been pushing against Su’s nomination specifically because of the deleterious impact of AB 5 on their businesses.
“Su developed and oversaw the implementation of AB 5 in California, which remains the most disruptive worker classification policy to be enacted anywhere at the state or federal level,” warned Todd Spencer, president and CEO of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association in a letter to President Biden last week. “Rather than allowing Ms. Su’s nomination to languish in the Senate, we believe you must find a more suitable candidate to lead the department.”
Indeed, Julie Su should not be allowed to fail upward. No senator who respects hard-working Americans could possibly support Julie Su’s nomination as U.S. labor secretary.
We are hopeful that Manchin, Sinema and Tester oppose Su’s nomination. We can only wish Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla could do the same.
Su is not the first Californian to bomb at the national stage. Former Los Angeles Metro CEO Phil Washington withdrew from his nomination to head the Federal Aviation Administration. And who could forget Vice President Kamala Harris, now reported by NBC News as the least popular vice president they’ve ever recorded in public polling.