The Senate voted Monday to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer as U.S. labor secretary, a Cabinet position that puts her in charge of enforcing federally mandated worker rights and protections at a time when the White House is trying to eliminate thousands of government employees.

Chavez-DeRemer will oversee the Department of Labor, one of several executive departments named in lawsuits challenging the authority of billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to order layoffs and access sensitive government data.

The Labor Department had nearly 16,000 full-time employees and a proposed budget of $13.9 billion for fiscal year 2025. Some of its vast responsibilities include reporting the U.S. unemployment rate, regulating workplace health and safety standards, investigating minimum wage, child labor and overtime pay disputes, and applying laws on union organizing and unlawful terminations.

Several prominent labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, endorsed Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination. The former Republican congresswoman from Oregon is the daughter of a Teamster, and during her one term in the House earned a reputation as pro-labor.

The Senate voted to confirm Chavez-DeRemer 67-32, with 17 Democrats voting yes and three Republicans voting no.

The Senate has now confirmed all but one of Trump’s picks for his Cabinet. Its Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions had voted 14-9 in favor of her nomination last week, with all Republicans except Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky giving Chavez-DeRemer their support. Three Democrats on the committee — Sens. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire — voted with the majority.

During her confirmation hearing before the committee, several Republican senators grilled Chavez-DeRemer about her decision to co-sponsor legislation that would have made it easier for workers to unionize and penalized employers who stood in the way of organizing efforts.

She declined to explicitly state whether she still backed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, also known as the PRO Act.

Chavez-DeRemer explained she had signed on as a co-sponsor because she wanted a seat at the table to discuss important labor issues. Under further questioning, she walked back some of her support of the bill, saying that she supported state “right to work” laws, which allow employees to refuse to join a union in their workplace.

The PRO Act did not come up for a vote during her time in Congress, but the legislation was reintroduced in the House and Senate last week.

“As we speak, Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies are stealing the American dream away from working families, rigging every lever of society in favor of the billionaire class,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. “That’s why we need the PRO Act, to empower hardworking Americans to bargain for better wages, benefits, and safer working conditions.”

During her time in Congress Chavez-DeRemer also co-sponsored legislation which sought to protect public-sector workers from having their Social Security benefits docked because of government pension benefits. That bill also stalled because it didn’t have enough Republican support.

Chavez-DeRemer walked a fine line during her confirmation hearing, attempting to appeal to both Democrats and Republicans. On the subject of whether the federal minimum wage was overdue for an increase, she said she recognized it hadn’t been raised from $7.25 an hour since 2009 but that she would not want to “shock the economy.”

Some Democratic senators and workers’ rights advocates have questioned how much independence Chavez-DeRemer would have as President Donald Trump’s labor secretary and where her allegiance would lie in an administration that has fired thousands of federal employees.

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By JOSH BOAK and ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Working-class voters helped Republicans make steady election gains this year and expanded a coalition that increasingly includes rank-and-file union members, a political shift spotlighting one of President-elect Donald Trump‘s latest Cabinet picks: a GOP congresswoman, who has drawn labor support, to be his labor secretary.

Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her bid for a second term this month, despite strong backing from union members, a key part of the Democratic base but gravitating in the Trump era toward a Republican Party traditionally allied with business interests.

“Lori’s strong support from both the Business and Labor communities will ensure that the Labor Department can unite Americans of all backgrounds behind our Agenda for unprecedented National Success – Making America Richer, Wealthier, Stronger and more Prosperous than ever before!” Trump said in a statement announcing his choice Friday night.

For decades, labor unions have sided with Democrats and been greeted largely with hostility by Republicans. But with Trump’s populist appeal, his working-class base saw a decent share of union rank-and-file voting for Republicans this year, even as major unions, including the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers, endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris in the White House race.

Trump sat down with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union leadership and members this year, and when he emerged from that meeting, he boasted that a significant chunk of union voters were backing him. Of a possible Teamsters endorsement, he said, “Stranger things have happened.”

The Teamsters ultimately declined to endorse either Trump, the former president, or Harris, the vice president, though leader Sean O’Brien had a prominent speaking slot at the Republican National Convention.

Kara Deniz, a Teamsters spokesperson, told the Associated Press that O’Brien met with more than a dozen House Republicans this past week to lobby on behalf of Chavez-DeRemer. “Chavez-DeRemer would be an excellent choice for labor secretary and has his backing,” Deniz said.

The work of the Labor Department affects workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employers’ rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities.

On Election Day, Trump deepened his support among voters without a college degree after running just slightly ahead of Democrat Joe Biden with noncollege voters in 2020.

Trump made modest gains, earning a clear majority of this group, while only about 4 in 10 supported Harris, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide.

Roughly 18% of voters in this year’s election were from union households, with Harris winning a majority of the group. But Trump’s performance among union members kept him competitive and helped him win key states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Chavez-DeRemer was one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act, which would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The measure would weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment.

Trump’s first term saw firmly pro-business policies from his appointees across government, including those on the National Labor Relations Board. Trump, a real estate developer and businessman before winning the presidency, generally has backed policies that would make it harder for workers to unionize.

During his recent campaign, Trump criticized union bosses, and at one point suggested that UAW members should not pay their dues. His first administration did expand overtime eligibility 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.

He has stacked his incoming administration with officials who worked on the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” blueprint, which includes a sharp swing away from Biden’s pro-union policies.

“Chavez-DeRemer’s record suggests she understands the value of policies that strengthen workers’ rights and economic security,” said Rebecca Dixon, president and CEO of National Employment Law Project, which is backed my many of the country’s major labor unions. “But the Trump administration’s agenda is fundamentally at odds with these principles, threatening to roll back workplace protections, undermine collective bargaining, and prioritize corporate profits over the needs of working people. This is where her true commitment to workers will be tested.”

Other union leaders also issued praise, but also sounded a note of caution.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler welcomed the choice while taking care to note Trump’s history of opposing polices that support unions.

“It remains to be seen what she will be permitted to do as secretary of labor in an administration with a dramatically anti-worker agenda,” Shuler said.

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