The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“NOMINATION OF JULIE A. SU” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the in the Senate section section on pages S1276-S1277 on April 20.
The Department provides billions in unemployment insurance, which peaked around 2011 though spending had declined before the pandemic. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, claimed the Department funds "ineffective and duplicative services" and overregulates the workplace.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
NOMINATION OF JULIE A. SU
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, well, the Biden administration's reckless economic policies have hurt American workers and families right from the beginning. Right from the start of their one-party government, Democrats used party-line votes to light trillions--
trillions--of dollars on fire and supercharge inflation that is still hammering the country right up to the present.
After 2 years of reckless policies and human pain, the American people voted for checks and balances. They elected a Republican House and a narrowly divided Senate to literally pump the brakes on this radicalism. But there is an old saying in Washington that ``personnel is policy.'' So while the American people put a stop to reckless legislation last November, President Biden continues to send reckless nominations to the Senate. They want to accomplish through Big Government regulations what the voters have stopped them from doing here in Congress.
This morning, for example, the HELP Committee is hearing from Julie Su, President Biden's nominee to run the Department of Labor. Ms. Su has a lengthy track record for all--all--the wrong reasons.
Before entering the Biden administration, she presided over a disaster as head of the State labor department out in California. Tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent payments went out the door on her watch. The State auditor found Ms. Su and her department were totally asleep--totally asleep--at the switch on antifraud efforts. Even the Los Angeles Times had to label her performance--listen to this--an
``epic failure.''
Our supply chains are already in enough peril, due in part to high-
stakes labor negotiations. Think about the negotiations to keep open the ports on the west coast. Think about the ripple effects. Our national economy cannot afford a track record of ``epic failure'' leading our Department of Labor.
She also supported and helped implement a controversial new California law that essentially--listen to this--declared war on independent contractors and tried to give Big Labor special interests veto power over the entire gig economy. In essence, these far-left Democrats want every ride-share driver, hairdresser, or personal trainer to be reclassified and handled more like a corporate employee, all so that part of their paychecks could be vacuumed up and donated to leftwing political causes.
The same partisan inflexibility has defined Ms. Su's time here in Washington as Deputy Secretary of Labor on the national level. From the powerful No. 2 job, she helped President Biden try to force that California model into our entire economy, a giant gift for Big Labor bosses at the expense of workers and consumers alike. She also signaled that she wants to help lead the far left's crusade against the current joint-employer rule, yet another effort to give big-money union bosses even more power to squash innovation and skim money from workers' paychecks.
What they can't get through legislation, they fully intend to push forward through regulations. So it is no wonder that an unending parade of small business leaders, independent contractors, and other job creators have written the Senate literally begging us--begging us--to demand a fairer and more mainstream Labor Secretary. Confirming this nominee would compound the economic pain the Biden administration has already caused.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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