Tuesday, February 27, 2024: Senate HELP Committee Advanced Renomination of Julie Su To Be Next U.S. Secretary of Labor
In a highly unusual closed-door committee meeting with no video available which Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-VT) convened without any public explanation, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (“HELP”) Committee advanced the renomination of Julie Su for U.S. Secretary of Labor. This development in the still unfolding saga surrounding Julie Su’s tortuous path to the Secretary’s Office now sets up the possibility of an eventual full Senate vote.
Just as with her previous nomination, the Committee vote was split 11-10 along party lines. Ms. Su has been the Acting Secretary of Labor since former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh left the Department of Labor on March 11, 2023 in a huff over President Biden’s failure to select Secretary Walsh to be the President’s new Chief of Staff when that position suddenly opened up. We previously reported that, on January 8, President Biden formally sent the renomination of Acting Secretary of Labor Su to the U.S. Senate.
Following Tuesday’s vote, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ranking Republican on the HELP Committee, released a statement protesting the closed-door nature of the meeting and again expressing the concerns that he, and other Republicans, have about Acting Labor Secretary Su’s background.
The next stop for Su’s nomination following the Help Committee’s action is for the full United States Senate to, again, consider her nomination. Senate Majority Leader Schumer will decide whether and when he might seek to advance her nomination to a full Senate Floor vote. Majority Leader Schumer will not do so, of course, unless and until he has counted votes and knows he has a majority of those Senators voting on any given day the Senate is in session willing to vote in favor or her nomination.
This is a tall order given that Su’s nomination the last time around the block drew the opposition of all 49 Republican Senators and at least two Democrats and two Independents (who caucus with the Democrats), including two who publicly voiced their opposition: Senators Manchin (I-WV) and Sinema (I-AZ). With Democrats and Independents holding 51 Senate votes, Majority Leader Schumer can afford to lose only two Democrat and/or Independent Senatorial votes if all Senators vote and Republicans again offer a united opposition of all 49 of its Members.
President Biden’s strategy in renominating Su for the position after her earlier historic rejection of a proposed Cabinet Member may be to pick up additional Democrat Senatorial votes as 20 Democrat Senators head into re-election battles in November. President Biden’s calculus may be that a number of the “fence-sitting” Democrats and liberal Republicans may need Labor Union support in November (which is very strong for Su, an ardent watercarrier for unionists). Union pressure supporting Su would have to change the minds, however, of at least three opposition Democrats and/or Independents and/or liberal Republicans.
Alternatively, Senator Schumer would have to strategically pick a Senate Legislative Day where he could muster enough favorable votes while two or more Republicans were out of position and unable to appear on the Floor of the Senate to vote (due to overseas assignments, illness, vacation, or pressing business back in their home state).
Remember, it is a “majority” of those Senators voting that counts (and the Quorum Clause of the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Senate Rules do not allow “remote” votes). For example, see the story, below, reporting on a case decision rendering the new Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act unconstitutional in Texas for the very reason that the House momentarily allowed remote voting (during the COVID-19 pandemic), including on the PWFA.
If Senators Manchin and Sinema were to vote against the Julie Su nomination, and if all other 49 Democrats and Independents were to vote in favor of her nomination, and Republicans could drag, push, shove, or wheel in on a medical gurney only 48 of their 49 Members onto the Senate Floor, Su’s nomination would still fail to attract a “majority” of voting Senators: 49 Yeas; 50 Nays; 1 absent.
However, if any other Democrat or Independent Senators were to join Manchin and Sinema in their suspected coming oppositions to Su’s renomination, Majority Leader Schumer would need to offset each loss of a “Yea” vote. Schumer can do so either by persuading a liberal Republican Senator to defect and vote for Su or pick a better day to host the vote when two or more Republicans might be unable to slide into the Senate on time to vote. (We are sure Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office is daily scouring the travel logs of Republican Senators on overseas trips on behalf of the Senate to make sure they are paired one-for-one with Democrat Senators on the same trip or are declining trips due to the “pressing needs of the United States Senate.”)
And please remember that there were two Democrats rumored at the time of Su’s first trip through the Senate to be “in the shadows” and in opposition to Su’s nomination but who did not wish to go public with their opposition. Of course, they did NOT need to go public with their oppositions since Manchin and Sinema were “on the public record” against the nomination and that was enough to kill it. Presumably those two additional “Nay” votes have not changed (unless Senator Schumer has found some ways to flatter those holdout Democrats sufficiently to cause them to change their votes).
On the other hand, President Biden may have sought to merely reassure Asian voters (60% of whom currently vote or lean Democrat) by giving Su the opportunity to remain in office with her head held high that her “nomination was pending” should this Congress end on January 2, 2025, without Majority Leader Schumer bringing Su’s nomination to a full Senate Floor vote.
On another hand, President Biden may have thought that portraying Julie Su as a “political martyr” – a modern day “Joan of Arc” being burned at the stake by harsh Republicans who are punishing her only for being obedient to an inner voice driving her to dedicate her life to help the Union movement – would help him win Blue Collar votes in November. Perhaps Julie Su is also part of the White House’s re-election plan to galvanize union members to get out the vote. Or perhaps the White House is hoping Su’s message of extending her hand to help the downtrodden in our society will appeal to more “working men and women” to help shore up the President’s waning support from Blue Collar workers as he heads into the November Presidential election.
By the way, was Marty Walsh’s Nomination to be a Governor of the United Sates Postal Service, discussed immediately below, merely coincidental or part of a broader push for the union vote against a likely election run against former President Trump. Trump, of course, won strong support from Blue Collar voters in each of his two prior Presidential election runs. Also, wait for Democrats to argue in Su’s nomination fight that “what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander” as they contrast Marty Walsh’s aggressive support of unions while the Secretary of Labor with the equally aggressive positions Julie Su has taken coming along behind Walsh at USDOL and which positions have drawn vigorous criticism from Senate Republicans.)
Remember: any decision made in any White House is always made by asking the question: “Does this decision win us more votes than it loses”?
Put aside your Netflix and Amazon Prime Memberships for the rest of the year: you have enough free entertainment coming your way in this coming Presidential election for any two-year stretch of TV-watching! (Could even rival Mrs. Maisel (even better than S5:9) and The Bear (S2:7))!
Sidenote: Former Secretary Walsh May Take on U.S. Government Service Side Hustle
As WIR readers may recall, when Secretary Walsh left the Labor Department in March 2023, he took the position of National Hockey League Players’ Association Executive Director. Secretary Walsh may be returning to federal government service, at least as a side hustle. This past Thursday, February 29, President Biden sent to the Senate his nomination of former Secretary Walsh to be one of the nine Governors of the United States Postal Service (“USPS”) for a term expiring December 8, 2029. USPS Governors earn $30,000 per year and qualify for per diem (if they spend more than 42 days per year in the service of the company) for a largely ceremonial position and to insert political influence on what is the equivalent in other corporate contexts to a Board of Directors.
