Senate Committee Approves Scalia To Head Labor Department
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved the nomination of Eugene Scalia as the Secretary of Labor on Tuesday in a 12-11 vote along party lines, clearing the way for the Senate to vote.
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved the nomination of Eugene Scalia as the Secretary of Labor on Tuesday in a 12-11 vote along party lines, allowing the full Senate to vote.
Scalia famously represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Financial Services Institute, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and other trade associations before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case that vacated the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule, which sought to eliminate conflicts of interest as it pertains to retirement investment advice.
Financial Services Institute president and chief executive officer Dale Brown said, “We applaud the committee’s approval of Eugene Scalia’s nomination and look forward to working with him again in the future. His breadth of experience, knowledge and integrity will be an asset to the Department of Labor. Gene will bring an investor-focused, measured approach, including recognizing the potential for unintended consequences of rulemaking. We urge the full Senate to quickly confirm this well-qualified nominee.”
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the HELP committee, who grilled Scalia on the fiduciary rule during his confirmation hearing last week, voted “no” on his nomination along with her fellow Democrats.
During her speech yesterday, Sen. Murray said, “Unfortunately, last week’s hearing confirmed my worst fears: that Mr. Scalia will be a yes-man for President Trump’s anti-worker agenda, not a champion for working families, that he will let companies off the hook, not hold them accountable, that if confirmed, he will be a Secretary of Corporate Interests, not a Secretary of Labor.”
Scalia’s likely confirmation requires a simple majority in the Senate where Republicans currently hold 53 seats.
Scalia, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, is a labor, employment, and regulatory lawyer and the son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. If confirmed, he would replace Alexander Acosta who resigned in mid-July following public criticism over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case.
Scalia has previously held several positions in the Federal Government. In the mid-to-late 1980s, he was a speechwriter to Secretary of Education William Bennett and later served as a special assistant to Attorney General William Barr.
In 2001, Scalia joined the Department of Labor as Solicitor of Labor, the agency’s principal legal officer with responsibility on a range of regulatory and enforcement matters.
He is a senior fellow of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a federal agency that makes recommendations to Congress and the executive branch on ways to improve agency procedures.
Scalia has served as a lecturer in labor and employment law at the University of Chicago Law School and as an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.
He received his undergraduate degree, with distinction, from the University of Virginia and his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, graduating cum laude and serving as editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review.
