WASHINGTON — 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 unions in her district but lost reelection in November.
Chavez-DeRemer will have to be confirmed by the Senate, which will be under Republican control when Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, and can formally send nominations to Capitol Hill.
Here are things to know about the labor secretary-designate, the agency she would lead if she wins Senate approval and how she could matter to Trump’s encore presidency.
Chavez-DeRemer is a one-term congresswoman, having lost reelection in her competitive Oregon district earlier this month. But in her short stint on Capitol Hill she has established a clear record on workers’ rights and organized labor issues that belie the Republican Party’s usual alliances with business interests.
She was an enthusiastic back of the PRO Act, legislation that would make it easier to unionize on a federal level. The bill, one of Democratic President Joe Biden’s top legislative priorities, passed the House during Biden’s first two years in office, when Democrats controlled the chamber. But it never had a chance of attracting enough Republican senators to reach the 60 votes required 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 docked because of government pension benefits. That proposal also has lingered for a lack of GOP support.
Chavez-DeRemer may give labor plenty to like, but union leaders are not necessarily cheering yet. Many of them still do not trust Trump.
The president-elect certainly has styled himself as a friend of the working class. His bond with blue-collar, non-college educated Americans is a core part of his political identity and helped him chip away at Democrats’ historical electoral advantage in households with unionized workers.
But he was also the president who chose business-friendly appointees to the National Labor Relations Board during his 2017-21 term and generally has backed policies that would make it harder for workers to unionize. He criticized union bosses on the campaign trail, and at one point suggested members of the United Auto Workers should not pay their dues. His administration did expand overtime eligibility rules, but not…
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