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Will the Biden Administration Pull Embattled Labor Nominee?

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  June 07, 2023 6:15 PM

It's been over a month since Julie Su, President Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Labor passed out of the the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on party lines, even after her brutal confirmation hearing. Yet the embattled nominee is showing no signs of being able to be confirmed in the full Senate. It is unlikely she'll get votes from Republican senators, except potentially Alaska's Sen. Lisa Murkowski. More notably, some Democrats may vote against her as well. One of those who has yet not committed to supporting Su, Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), has now raised the question as to if the White House will pull her nomination.

"They should know the votes. And if in fact the votes aren’t there they should pull it and move on, unless they think they can move," Tester told CNN's Manu Raju. Tester himself has not decided, saying "I want to keep my options open" and it "can go either way."

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has really been the one to watch, told Raju on Tuesday night that he's "nowhere" on the nomination. Both Tester and Manchin are up for reelection in 2024, though only Tester has indicated his plans, which is that he is running. Manchin continues to play coy, as he just recently did during his Sunday show appearances earlier this week.

As Wednesday reporting from USA Today indicated, other Democrats, as well as Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) still have yet to share where they stand:

  • Manchin told USA TODAY "no decision" had been made on Tuesday.
  • "I'm not going to talk to you about that at all," Sinema said.
  • Kelly said he's still having discussions about Su, who he said he met with roughly a month ago. "I had a good conversation with her," he said, "but there are still folks that are reaching out to me about her."
  • Murkowski dodged questions about how she intends to vote, saying it seems to her that Su's nomination has been "stalled out for quite awhile."

If the White House did withdraw Su's nomination, she wouldn't be the only one to meet such a fate. Neera Tanden's name was withdrawn from consideration for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director in March 2021. David Chipman's name was also withdrawn from consideration in September of that year to lead the ATF. Ed Gonzalez withdrew himself from consideration to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in July  2022. Gigi Sohn also withdrew her name from consideration as a nominee for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in March of this year. 

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That USA Today report also highlighted, though, that Biden is standing by Su, as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre indicated during Monday's press briefing. Jean-Pierre offered that there is "confidence that she will get through," and that "certainly she will get the support from the White House as well and from this president."

Although it's on the Senate to confirm Su, or not, House members have also warned about her lack of qualifications, including Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley of Su's state of California where she served and severely mishandled her role as Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. 

Su went before the House Education and Labor Committee on Wednesday, and even misled on her record, something Kiley said "should disqualify a nominee."

Members also brought up Su's racist remarks, COVID vaccine mandates, and migrant children being forced into the labor force after she instructed her staff to obstruct ICE agents. 

She couldn't even answer basic questions, though. As he questioned her, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) raised concerns that she didn't exactly give the most reassuring responses on whether "religious or faith-based organizations should be able to operate according to their sincerely held religious beliefs."

Notably, Su had been particularly to schedule and only bothered to appear before the committee because she would had been threatened with a subpoena had she not, as Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) pointed out.