Don Nickles: “I told my friend from Massachusetts that I did not have a problem with Alexis Herman being Secretary of Labor as much as…”

“I told my friend from Massachusetts that I did not have a problem with Alexis Herman being Secretary of Labor as much as I had a real problem with what I perceive to be legislation by Executive order. There was proposed to be an Executive order dealing with project labor agreements that, as it was read by me and many other people, basically would have excluded nonunion companies from bidding on over $200 million of work per year. I think that requires legislation, and if Congress wants to legislate that, certainly Congress has the right to legislate that. I told the White House my hope and desire would be that if they want to legislate, to find someone to introduce that legislation, we would take it up in the legislative process. So I have had for the past few weeks objected to considering this nomination, trying to get the White House to back off from that order. I might inform our colleagues--somebody said, well, what caused this change of events? The White House has now agreed not to issue the Executive order, and I appreciate that.”