California’s Julie Su faces a fierce, and likely ugly, battle to win confirmation for U.S. Secretary of Labor.
Chances are good she’ll win the fight, since 51 senators caucus with the Democrats, and Su won Senate confirmation two years ago as deputy secretary.
But Su, who ran the California department that managed the state’s beleaguered unemployment system during the COVID-19 pandemic, faces tough questions. President Joe Biden nominated her last week to replace Marty Walsh, who’s leaving to become executive director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association.
“I really felt that she almost enabled fraud in the unemployment compensation program by suspending all the safeguards,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Collins, who is considered the Senate’s most moderate Republican, is member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will consider the Su choice.
Top Republican on that committee is Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. He wants to examine not only her California record, but her tenure as deputy secretary in the U.S. Labor Department.
“”There have been issues that have not been handled well by her office in particular,” he said.
Democrats are enthusiastic about Su.
“I think she’s eminently qualified,” said committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt. “I hope we can get her through quickly and easily.”
Su has been a favorite Republican target for some time.
She was Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce...
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