WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday named Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Department of Labor in his second administration, elevating a Republican congresswoman who has strong support from the unions in her district, but lost re-election in November.
Chavez-DeRemer will have to be confirmed by the Senate, which will be under Republican control when Trump takes office on January 20, 2025, and can formally send nominations to Capitol Hill.
Here are things to know about the nominee for Labor secretary, the agency she would lead if she wins Senate confirmation, and how she could matter to Trump’s encore presidency.
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Chavez-DeRemer has a pro-labor record that pleases unions
Chavez-DeRemer is a one-term congresswoman who lost re-election in her competitive Oregon district earlier this month. But during her brief stint on Capitol Hill, she has built a clear record on workers’ rights and organized labor issues that run counter to the Republican Party’s usual alliances with business interests.
She was an enthusiastic supporter of the PRO Act, legislation that would make it easier to organize unions at the federal level. The bill, one of Democratic President Joe Biden’s top legislative priorities, passed the House of Representatives during Biden’s first two years in office, when Democrats controlled the chamber. But it never had a chance to attract enough Republican senators to reach the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.
Chavez-DeRemer also co-sponsored another piece of legislation that would protect public sector workers from having their Social Security benefits cut off due to government retirement benefits. That proposal has also stalled due to a lack of support from the Republican Party.
Some union leaders remain skeptical of Trump’s agenda
Chavez-DeRemer may have plenty to offer workers, but union leaders aren’t necessarily cheering yet. Many of them still don’t trust Trump.
The president-elect has certainly described himself as a friend of the working class. His connection to blue-collar, non-college-educated Americans is a core part of his political identity and has helped him erase Democrats’ historic electoral advantage in unionized households.
But he was also the president who chose business-friendly appointments to the National Labor Relations Board during his 2017-2021 term and generally supported policies that would make it harder for workers to unionize. He criticized union bosses during the campaign, at one point suggesting that members of the United Auto Workers should not pay their dues. His administration expanded overtime rules, but not nearly as much as Democrats wanted, and a Trump-appointed judge has since struck down the Biden administration’s more generous overtime rules.
And while Trump distanced himself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 during the campaign, since his victory he has warmed to some of the people involved in that conservative blueprint that, broadly speaking, further consolidates power in the workplace. direction of employers and companies. Among other ideas, the plan would also restrict enforcement of workplace safety regulations.
After Trump’s announcement Friday, Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, praised Chavez-DeRemer’s record in the House of Representatives, but also sounded a note of caution.
“Educators and working families across the country will be watching … as she moves through the confirmation process,” Pringle said in a statement, “and hope to hear a pledge from her to continue to stand up for workers and students as her record.” suggests, not blind loyalty to the Project 2025 agenda.”
The Ministry of Labor could be in the spotlight in a cabinet with many billionaires
Labor is another executive branch that often operates outside the spotlight. But Trump’s emphasis on the working class could increase scrutiny on the department, especially in an administration filled with enormously wealthy leaders, including the newly elected president.
Trump implicitly took aim at the department’s historically uncontroversial role in keeping labor statistics, arguing that the Biden administration manipulated unemployment and labor force calculations.
If confirmed, Chavez-DeRemer could find herself standing between the nonpartisan bureaucrats of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a president with strong opinions about government statistics and what they say about the state of the economy — and the White House’s stewardship House. Her handling of overtime rules would also come under scrutiny, and she could be drawn into whatever happens of Trump’s promise to launch the largest deportation force in US history, potentially pitting the Trump administration against economic sectors and would create businesses that rely heavily on immigrant labor.
Chavez-DeRemer would add diversity to the Cabinet room
Chavez-DeRemer was the first Republican woman elected to Congress from Oregon. She joins Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, as the second Latino pick for Trump’s second Cabinet. Trump’s first Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta, was also Latino.
