Senate Committee to Vote on Labor Nominee Eugene Scalia Sept. 24

Eugene Scalia
Secretary of Labor nominee Eugene Scalia speaks during his nomination hearing on Sept. 19. (Cliff Owen/AP)

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A Senate panel on Sept. 24 will consider the nomination of Eugene Scalia to become Secretary of Labor in the Trump administration.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee heard from the nominee Sept. 19. At that hearing, Scalia articulated a mission statement for the department.

As he put it, the department is tasked with: “Enforcing the worker protections enacted by Congress; offering programs that help prepare Americans for a lifetime of productive work, while also helping supply the skilled workforce needed by American businesses; and providing support to workers who’ve fallen on hard times, whether through loss of work, loss of retirement benefits, or work-related illness or injury.”



He also described Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao as “exceptional” in her role as Labor Secretary during the George W. Bush administration.

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The son of the late Justice of the Supreme Court Antonin Scalia, he would succeed Alexander Acosta if confirmed by the Senate.

Scalia is a partner at the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and in 2001 was the Labor Department’s Solicitor of Labor. He earned degrees from the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.