Washington — Former GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Trump’s nominee to run the Labor Department, is expected to face tough questioning from at least one member of her own party when she appears before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for her confirmation hearing Wednesday.
Her confirmation hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who sits on the committee, has said he will oppose her because of her previous support for pro-union policies. Chavez-DeRemer was one of only three Republicans who supported the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, in the last Congress. The bill would have strengthened labor protections for workers to collectively bargain and expanded penalties for employers that violate workers’ rights.
In January, Paul predicted that Chavez-DeRemer could lose more than a dozen Republican votes. But so far, he’s been the only GOP senator to publicly pull his support.
“I’m the national spokesman and lead author of the right-to-work bill. Her support for the PRO Act, which would not only oppose national right-to-work but would preempt state law on right-to-work — I think it’s not a good thing,” Paul told NBC News last month. “And it’d be sort of hard for me, since it’s a big issue for me, to support her.”
Without Paul, Chavez-DeRemer will need at least one Democrat on the Senate HELP Committee to vote to advance her nomination. Republicans have a 12-11 vote majority on the panel.
Chavez-DeRemer could in theory pick up support from Democrats for her pro-union stances, but few if any now seem willing to back Mr. Trump’s nominees over his overhaul of the executive branch and firings of federal workers.
So far, Mr. Trump’s Cabinet nominees have been confirmed with minimal GOP defections. Three Republicans voted against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was confirmed after Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. Republicans have otherwise united behind Mr. Trump’s picks, with the exception of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who voted against three nominees as of last week.
Mr. Trump nominated the Chavez-DeRemer, an Oregon Republican, as labor secretary after she lost her reelection bid in November. She served one two-year term in Congress, becoming the first Republican woman elected to Congress in Oregon.
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
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