President Biden nominates California’s Julie Su as U.S. labor secretary
Julie Su, the former California labor official who presided over the troubled state unemployment agency during the Covid pandemic, was nominated Tuesday as U.S. labor secretary by President Joe Biden.
Biden called her a “champion for labor” and lauded her state service.
“Julie has led the largest state labor department in the nation, cracked down on wage theft, fought to protect trafficked workers, increased the minimum wage, created good-paying, high-quality jobs, and established and enforced workplace safety standards,” the president said.
But the nomination, which must be confirmed by the Senate, appears certain to run into opposition from Republicans and some business interests.
“It appears failing upward is the new American dream. Julie Su was a disaster in California, presiding over a hostile approach to business owners and wide-scale unemployment insurance fraud,” said Tom Manzo, president and founder of the California Business and Industry Alliance.
Asian American activists have pushed for the nomination of Su, currently deputy secretary of labor. Walsh, who is leaving to become director of the National Hockey League Players Association, had high praise for Su.
“Julie is an incredible leader and has been central to our success as a team and as a Department. With the kind of leadership and talent assembled across the Department, I am confident there will be continuity and the work will be sustained,” he said.
Su was called “pre-eminently qualified,” by Gregg Orton, national director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, a coalition of 38 Asian Pacific organizations around the country.
And she’s been endorsed by the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus.
The Asian caucus said in a statement Su “has dedicated her career to the promotion of workers’ rights and fair labor practices.”
Su and California
But Su, 53, has also had to defend her record as California’s Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Republicans and business interests have been highly critical of her agency, which included the state’s Employment Development Department.
The department manages California’s unemployment program, which was overwhelmed in 2020 by an explosion in jobless claims, and new federal unemployment programs, as the Covid pandemic devastated the economy.
The Biden administration has several top-level Asian Americans, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Arati Prabhakar, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
While Tai is a cabinet member, there’s a feeling in Washington that running a Cabinet agency is very important.
The U.S. Labor Department manages federal employment and training programs, in cooperation with states.
California’s EDD, like agencies throughout the country, made it a priority to get benefits out quickly.
But it often lacked the staff and technology to move quickly and efficiently, and its call center was overwhelmed, the website was criticized as confusing and there was massive fraud. Estimates are that in California, $20 billion was lost to scammers.
Those issues came up during Su’s 2021 Senate confirmation hearing as deputy secretary. “It is true that all states struggled, but California’s struggles swamp everyone. And none of their (other states’) secretaries of labor are here today seeking a promotion,” said Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, the committee’s top Republican at the time.
Su was confirmed for her current job in 2021 by a 50 to 47 vote. No Republicans voted for her.
Republicans continue to criticize the department’s operations under Su’s watch. The Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee is currently investigating EDD’s management of the unemployment system.
At a hearing earlier this month, Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., quoted Su in a January 2021 EDD conference call. She said, “there is no sugar coating the reality, California did not have sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud.”
Su has said that the fraud issue was extraordinary and part of a criminal conspiracy that reached well beyond California.
Most of the fraud involved the federally-funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, a program created by Congress as Covid spread in March 2020 to provide help for people who traditionally don’t qualify for regular coverage, such as independent contractors and small business owners.
Su and worker rights
Su, though, has a long record as a worker rights advocate.
In 1995, she helped undocumented immigrants from Thailand who worked in sweatshop conditions for long hours at an El Monte garment factory.
In 2001, the MacArthur Foundation awarded Su a genius grant and noted how she filed a “ landmark federal lawsuit on behalf of these workers, establishing a precedent that expands the scope of employment responsibility beyond manufacturing subcontractors to the retailers and fashion designer labels that initially contract for the work.”
Su won monetary compensation for her clients as well as legal immigrant status. The case became an important milestone in efforts to battle human trafficking.
Su was appointed California Labor Commissioner in 2011 by Gov. Jerry Brown, overseeing the department that enforces California’s strong labor laws.
She was a big supporter of the California law that gave protections such as overtime to many workers in the gig industry, a law fiercely opposed by many in the business community.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., is expected to hold her confirmation hearing. No date has been set.
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 2:21 PM with the headline "President Biden nominates California’s Julie Su as U.S. labor secretary."
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