Ranking Member Cassidy Opposes Julie Su’s Renomination for DOL Secretary During Closed-Door Committee Vote

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released a statement following his vote to oppose Julie Su’s renomination for Secretary of the Department of Labor (DOL) during a closed-door committee vote. The final vote was 11 to 10. All Republican members of the Committee voted against her nomination. Su’s nomination will now await a floor vote at the discretion of the Senate Majority Leader.  

This is the second time Cassidy has voted against Ms. Su’s nomination in the HELP Committee. Ms. Su’s previous nomination failed to secure a Senate vote before her nomination was returned to the White House at the conclusion of the first session of the 118th Congress. 

Yesterday, Cassidy criticized HELP Committee Chair Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) after he decided to hold the committee vote on Ms. Su behind closed doors and without a public hearing. This comes after the HELP Chair denied a formal request from Cassidy to hold a public hearing on her nomination to allow members of the Committee to address their concerns with Ms. Su directly and get answers to questions regarding her leadership at DOL. 

“Since Julie Su’s first nomination hearing, the concerns over her leadership of DOL have only grown. Ms. Su has continued to build a troubling record as Acting DOL Secretary, implementing policies that promote large labor unions at the expense of workers and economic growth,” said Dr. Cassidy. “The HELP Committee should have been able to address these issues directly with Ms. Su to properly conduct its constitutional duty to oversee the president’s nominees. It is unacceptable that the HELP Chair denied committee members this opportunity.” 

Currently, Ms. Su is overseeing the implementation of DOL’s worker classification rule that dismantles the gig economy and jeopardizes the ability of 27 million Americans to work as independent contractors. Additionally, DOL’s proposed overtime rule dramatically increases the overtime pay threshold by 55 percent, reducing jobs and raising prices for American families. DOL has also proposed a new policy that empowers outside union officials to participate and inject their influence in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) workplace inspections when the workplace is not unionized.    

Additionally, there are serious concerns about Ms. Su’s mismanagement of DOL as Acting Secretary. Specifically, DOL has failed to prevent the dramatic increase in illegal child labor, which has risen by 50 percent since 2022. This is amid alarming reports that the senior DOL officials repeatedly ignored warnings and downplayed the exploitation of migrant children for cheap labor, to which Ms. Su has failed to adequately respond. Additionally, DOL has struggled to process H-2B guest worker visas on time, severely impacting employers that rely on H-2B workers to meet their seasonal needs. 

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