Senate Republicans in the HELP Committee painted President Biden‘s Secretary of Labor nominee Julie Su as too labor-friendly and too anti-business to lead the Labor Department.
Sen. Mitt Romney went on the attack, saying that Su’s “lack of experience and competency makes her unfit to lead,” and calling Su guilty of “gross mismanagement” when she was California’s labor secretary.
Romney, who in a presidential debate memorably said he consulted “binders full of women” when trying to fill government jobs while he was Massachusetts governor, left little doubt that he wants to put Su back in the binders. Romney’s famous binders contained myriad women who were candidates, but did not get the jobs.
The Utah Senator backed up his questioning with more than one tweet, writing “Julie Su not only lacks the experience and competency to serve as Secretary of Labor, but she carries a record of gross mismanagement of taxpayer dollars.”
Julie Su not only lacks the experience and competency to serve as Secretary of Labor, but she carries a record of gross mismanagement of taxpayer dollars. Under her watch, California sent out $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment benefits! Her nomination makes no sense at all. pic.twitter.com/VszUcrWC63
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) April 20, 2023
Romney’s criticism was particularly harsh for a nominee already serving as Deputy Secretary of Labor, and one who has already been confirmed once by the Senate to serve in that role.
There are Romney detractors who believe he has a predilection for working with white men — it’s this suspicion that triggered the debate question about his hiring of women in the first place — and that he favors, wittingly or not, people in a demographic more likely to share his pro status quo views on business/labor relations.
That belief wasn’t contradicted — at least on the optics — by Romney’s other tweets on the day he excoriated Su. Romney’s other tweets featured his evidently more cheerful meeting with a homogenous group of local Utah officials.
Local officials play a key role in effectively managing Utah’s water resources. Met with a group of general managers for Utah’s water districts for an update on infrastructure projects and to thank them for their work to ensure water supply for Utahns. pic.twitter.com/ub4WNKVrel
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) April 20, 2023
Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking Republican on HELP, also cast doubt on Su’s candidacy, saying her policies had “dismantled the gig economy” in California. Cassidy extracted a promise from Su that as U.S. Labor Secretary she would treat policy differently than she had in California.
The House Ways and Means Committee, with 13 Republican signatories including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sent a letter to Biden saying they were “deeply concerned by the prospect of Ms. Su serving as the head of DOL” — even on an “acting basis.”
The letter, aligning with Cassidy and Romney, accuses Su of “promoting radical policies” in California where she worked to reclassify some gig economy workers, especially at ride share companies, as employees. McCarthy and company asserted that “similar actions at the federal level would be a disaster for workers and our economy.”
It is hard to believe that Julie Su—whose public calendar shows standing meetings with unions and only very recent engagements with businesses—would be an unbiased, neutral arbiter when negotiating agreements. Her lack of experience and competency makes her unfit to lead @USDOL. pic.twitter.com/98yZzR4nbN
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) April 20, 2023
Backgrounder: Julie A. Su is an American attorney (Harvard Law, Stanford undergrad) who has served as United States deputy secretary of labor since 2021. Before assuming that post, she was the California Labor Secretary, serving under Governor Gavin Newsom, and headed California’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) under Governor Jerry Brown.
Su has been a champion of workers’ rights, immigrant rights, and civil rights. She has been recognized for her work with numerous awards, including a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” in 2001 and a “Champion of Change” award from the White House in 2013.
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