Home>Articles>California Congressional Republicans Oppose Julie Su’s Consideration for Secretary of Labor

California Secretary of Labor Julie Su. (Photo: CA.Gov)

California Congressional Republicans Oppose Julie Su’s Consideration for Secretary of Labor

The Republicans want to put a halt to Su’s years of failing up

By Katy Grimes, February 18, 2023 11:35 am

California Globe has reported now for more than two years on the horrific fraud in California’s unemployment agency during Covid, the Orwellian-named “Employment Development Department.” The fraud totaled more than $32 billion in taxpayer funds.

In July 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the formation of a “strike team” to solve numerous issues plaguing the Employment Development Department, including resolving the backlog of millions of unfulfilled unemployment claims, and fraudulent unemployment claims since the coronavirus pandemic lockdown was first ordered by Gov. Newsom in March 2020.

Overseeing the EDD was California Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary Julie Su, who confirmed in 2021 that, in 2020, fraudsters stole at least $11.4 billion in unemployment benefits from California, the Globe reported. And 800,000 unemployment claims were paid late, along with 12.7 million delayed eligibility determinations.

For her efforts, California Labor Secretary Julie Su was allowed to “fail up,” was named to a prominent position in President Joe Biden’s administration as Deputy Secretary of Labor. California often promotes terrible state employees, up and out to other agencies. This “promotion” took Su out of the state entirely.

Now Julie Su is in the running for U.S. Secretary of Labor, despite the trail of destruction left behind her in California.

Friday, California Reps. Kevin Kiley (CA-03), Tom McClintock (CA-05); Jay Obernolte (CA-08); Mike Garcia (CA-27); Young Kim (CA-40); Ken Calvert (CA-41); and Darrell Issa (CA-48), delivered a letter to President Joe Biden expressing their strong opposition to Julie Su’s consideration for Secretary of Labor.

The spelled out how Su presided over one of the largest and easily preventable cases of unemployment fraud in U.S. history, resulting in more than $30 billion in taxpayer funds stolen, including by state prison inmates and international criminal syndicates.

They also explained how Su championed AB 5, a cruel and destructive labor law that destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands of independent contractors and freelancers. Rep. Kiley was joined by Reps. McClintock (CA-05); Obernolte (CA-08); Garcia (CA-27); Kim (CA-40); Calvert (CA-41); and Issa (CA-48) on the letter.

The California State Auditor completed an audit of the EDD in January 2021 laying out how poorly run the EDD has been, as well as the avoidable fraud. They explain:

“The economic shutdowns in early 2020 led to historically high numbers of UI claims in a very short time (claim surge), and further shutdowns began in December 2020, raising the potential for additional spikes in unemployment. This audit reviewed EDD’s response to the claim surge, its handling of the resulting backlog of unpaid claims, and the assistance it has provided to individuals through its call center.”

The Auditor said the EDD has been aware of internal problems for more than 10 years, while failing to prepare for inevitable economic downturns in the state, throughout the Gov. Jerry Brown administration and well into Gov. Gavin Newsom’s. “EDD had no comprehensive plan for how it would respond if California experienced a recession and UI claims increased correspondingly,” the audit reported.

But what led to the $31 billion in fraudulent claims was when Secretary Julie Su made the decision to suspend most EDD eligibility requirements, according to the audit. It was only federal oversight which caught this and notified the EDD that they could not suspend eligibility requirements.

The Audit found:

“In March 2020, the secretary of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (agency secretary) directed EDD to pay claimants UI benefits before determining whether they met key program eligibility requirements, and EDD expanded this directive to include most program eligibility determinations. In April 2020, the agency secretary further directed EDD to temporarily stop collecting the certifications claimants must regularly submit that assert they remain eligible for benefits.”

Given the recent train derailment and toxic disaster in Ohio, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg ignoring it, and finally breaking his silence to blame the Trump administration, Julie Su may be just what the Biden administration is looking for – more incompetence and fraud.

The letter here and below.

Su-Delegation-Letter-2.17.2023-Kiley
Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Spread the news:

 RELATED ARTICLES

7 thoughts on “California Congressional Republicans Oppose Julie Su’s Consideration for Secretary of Labor

  1. “Given the recent train derailment and toxic disaster in Ohio, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg ignoring it, and finally breaking his silence to blame the Trump administration, Julie Su may be just what the Biden administration is looking for – more incompetence and fraud.”
    Maybe it’s also another opportunity to rub the American people’s nose in their disgusting mess, which from what we’ve seen they dearly LOVE doing.
    No matter what happens, I really appreciate seeing this objection from a congressional Republican contingent led by Kevin Kiley. It’s not only a boost for our morale, but it also reminds Americans of what our country could be if we had bold, active, and vocal Repubs such as these in the majority in both chambers of Congress and in the White House. What’s more, this letter can be used as a template to bombard Pres Grampy Joe’s office with our own letters and emails that protest this ridiculous and destructive Labor Secty potential appointment. It’s a worthy effort even if it falls on deaf ears because it builds our protest muscles and annoys them.

  2. As California Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary, Democrat Julie Su allowed more than $30 billion in taxpayer funds to be stolen by state prison inmates and international criminal syndicates. Was she incompetent and negligent…or was she a willing participant in the fraud? She’ll fit right in with the corrupt Biden regime.

  3. Katy Grimes summed it up perfectly: Julie Su is just what the Biden administration is looking for – more incompetence and fraud.

  4. Begs the question,, why?
    Julie is not “failing up” she is being rewarded by her party for getting those funds out of the government of California and in to the hands of the DNC. The DNC then distributed the “embezzled” funds to Nancy who then distributed them to her minions.
    Good Job Julie!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *