10-03-2025
Senate to vote on confirmation of Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead Labor Department
March 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on the confirmation of former U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer of Oregon to lead the Labor Department.
Chavez-DeRember, 55, is the next to last of the 22 Cabinet picks nearing confirmation. Elise Stefanik has been nominated for U.N. Ambassador and is currently a member of the U.S. House as the Republicans hold a slim 218-214 majority.
A simple majority is needed for her to be confirmed with Republicans holding a 53-47 edge.
The nomination of Chavez-DeRember, who served one two-year term in the House, cleared a procedural step in a 66-30 vote Thursday, with 15 Democrats voting with all Republicans except Ron Paul, a Republican serving Kentucky, to advance her nomination. Her nomination cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee 14-9 on Nov. 27.
Paul opposed her nomination in the committee but three Democrats voted for her.
The Kentucky Republican has been critical of her support for pro-labor policies.
She later retracked her support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, saying now she "fully" supported states that "want to protect their right to work."
"If confirmed, my job will be to implement President Trump's policy division, and my guiding principle will be President Trump's guiding principle, ensuring a level playing field for businesses, unions and, most importantly, the American worker," the Oregon Republican said in her opening remarks.
The department has about 16,000 full-time employees.
Chavez-DeRemer lost her re-election bid in November.
In January 2023, she was the first Republican woman to represent Oregon in the House.
Chavez-DeRemer also lost twice for that seat in 2018 and 2018 in the general elections.
The Fifth Congressional District, one of six in the state, includes the corner of Portland.
Before serving in Congress, she was mayor and city council member in Happy Valley, Ore., which has a population of 25,000, from 2004 to 2018.
With her husband, an anesthesiologist, she co-founded an anesthesia management company and opened several other medical clinics in the Pacific Northwest.
