Trump picks Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor Secretary

() – President-elect Donald Trump announced this Friday that Republican Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon is his candidate to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Labor.

“Lori’s strong support in the business and labor communities will ensure that the Department of Labor can unite Americans of all backgrounds behind our unprecedented Agenda for National Success: Making America Richer, Wealthier, More! stronger and more prosperous than ever!” Trump said in a statement.

Chavez-DeRemer lost re-election in Oregon’s 5th District earlier this month.

Under the new Trump administration, the Labor Department is likely to adopt a more business-friendly agenda, given the president-elect’s broader goal of cutting red tape. The agency oversees, among other things, worker protection programs, enforces labor standards, and ensures compliance with overtime laws.

President Joe Biden’s Labor Department was originally led by Marty Walsh, a former union boss and mayor of Boston. Julie Su, a civil rights attorney, has served as the department’s acting secretary since Walsh left in 2023 to take a position with the National Hockey League Players Association.

During Trump’s first term, Alexander Acosta served as Secretary of Labor for the first two years. He was appointed when Trump’s first nominee, Andy Puzder, the then-CEO of the company that owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast-food chains, withdrew his appointment after facing challenges to his confirmation in the Senate.

Acosta, until then a member of the National Labor Relations Board, resigned after criticism for his role in negotiating the deal with Jeffrey Epstein in 2008, when he was US attorney in Miami. Acosta was replaced as Labor Secretary by Eugene Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who served for the remainder of Trump’s first term.

– This is a developing news story.