Su Me, Says Biden Labor Secretary – Renomination of Julie Su on Tap for 2024

The Biden Administration says it plans to continue to evade and degrade the constitution and will re-nominate Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su come the new year.

Su was nominated in March but the Senate – which must approve all Cabinet posts – balked at installing a hard left Big Labor advocate with a glancing appreciation of the truth who also managed to at least $32 billion dollars to fraudsters while she was in charged of California’s unemployment agency (EDD) as Labor Secretary.

The Senate went out of session Wednesday, officially scuttling Su’s nomination, a nomination that never even reached the Senate floor for a vote.

Once the Biden administration saw Su was toast, it changed it’s tune, said the Senate vote wasn’t really all that important and declared she could remain “acting” secretary indefinitely.  

But to keep that unconstitutional ruse afloat, Su must formally be re-nominated to keep the farcical shadow play of her being an official “nominee” – and thereby being able to be “acting secretary” going.

And Republicans on Capitol Hill who have been dealing with “Her Actingness” for the past 282 days are none too pleased.

“We need a qualified Secretary of Labor who can impartially enforce the law, properly manage a department, and refrain from partisan activism. Ms. Su failed to show her ability to do any of those three things,” said Louisiana senator and ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee Sen. Bill Cassidy.  “It is clear Ms. Su lacks the necessary votes for confirmation. I urge President Biden to put forward a nominee who is committed to fair enforcement of our nation’s labor laws and is capable of being confirmed in the Senate.”

Su, then deputy secretary, was nominated to the post when then-secretary Marty Walsh left DC to head up the NHL players union. That was in February.

Since then, Su’s nomination hit snag after pothole after oopsy until it hit the brick wall of West Virgina Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin.  He came out publicly against her (other Democrat senators privately told the White House they wouldn’t vote for her as well) and that – in a 51-49 senate – meant Su had no chance, no chance to the point that a confirmation vote was not even scheduled.

The United States constitution requires that a number of presidential appointments be confirmed by the Senate, the “advice and consent” clause. But that really didn’t count for Su, argued the administration, because there was a Labor Department law that said the deputy secretary could remain “acting” secretary – with all the perks and power of a real secretary – until someone – anyone, really – else was confirmed by the Senate.

This argument was challenged by House Education and Workforce Committee chair Sen. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) but the Government Accountability Office issued an opinion that Su could stay. 

The is just an opinion and not necessarily legally binding, hence the filing of at least one lawsuit  against Su and the Labor Department saying a new rule or regulation was invalid because Su’s not really secretary (acting officials typically have about 210 days in that role before they have move on.)

Foxx – who has engaged in an on-going battle with Su over access to information and potential departmental overreach, is frustrated by the continual dissembling and side-stepping by the administration.

“Su’s role in the country’s largest state-level pandemic unemployment fraud was strike one. Her war on independent contractors’ livelihoods was strike two. And her obsession with the Big Labor Pro Act was strike three,” said Foxx.  “Julie Su has been warming the bench for months now, proven by the fact that she does not, and will not, have the votes for confirmation. It’s time for the White House to cut Su from the roster.”

Su is best – or worst – remembered in California for two things: first, her championing of the draconian anti-freelancer law AB 5 (if you’re a freelancer, you don’t a join a union, hence the law) and second, her atrocious handling of the pandemic response while she was the state’s secretary of labor. The EDD lost at least $32 billion to fraud, may owe the feds another $18 billion because it sent out improper benefits on its own, and left hundreds of thousands of people who actually qualified for unemployment benefits in the lurch.

“Acting Secretary Julie Su’s nomination has lasted 281 days, the longest a cabinet-level nominee has waited without a floor vote when the same party controls the White House and the Senate. During her tenure as Acting Labor Secretary, Su refused to answer whether AB 5 was a good law, even though she championed and aggressively enforced the law during her tenure in California. President Biden knows Julie Su will never be confirmed, and if Ms. Su remains in power as an unconfirmed Acting Secretary, every action of the Labor Department is under a legal cloud,” said longtime Su critic Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin). “It is high past time for President Biden to withdraw this failed nomination and choose a qualified Secretary who will perform his or her duties competently and will be on the side of American workers.”

The date for the re-nomination is not yet known, nor is the date for the vote on the Senate floor on Su’s nom…oh, who are we kidding?