On the recordJuly 17, 2023
It has been nearly 5 months since President Biden nominated Julie Su to be Secretary of Labor. That nomination remains stalled. The Senate has declined to confirm her. She now faces bipartisan opposition, yet the President has not withdrawn her nomination. Worse yet, Su is continuing to serve as Secretary of Labor in an acting capacity, despite the Senate declining to put her in that position. It appears that this is now the plan, to simply cancel the vote and carry on as if she had been confirmed. Su's leading supporter in the Senate, Bernie Sanders, said as much. He said: I hope she has the votes to become the Secretary. If not, of course, she should stay where she is. She is doing a great job, Sanders continued. Why would you not? Well, why would you not? One simple reason is the Constitution. This is blatantly an end run around the Constitution's advice and consent requirement of Article II, section 2, clause 2. As further evidence of the Biden administration's plan to simply keep Su on indefinitely, with or without a vote, after months of Department of Labor rulemaking being put on pause to spare Su negative press during the confirmation process, the wheels are now back in motion. The administration seems to be acknowledging that Su does not have the votes for confirmation but, again, plans to keep her at the helm of the Labor Department anyway.…
