Democrats are trying again to confirm Julie Su to Joe Biden’s cabinet. What are her chances?

Julie Su’s frustrating, year-long quest to become U.S. Secretary of Labor got a small boost as a Democratic-dominated committee voted to approve the nomination.

But whether the former California labor chief will finally get the job remains in doubt.

Su’s nomination was approved Tuesday on a party-line 11-10 vote by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Biden renominated Su after she failed to win confirmation last year. It’s not unusual for a committee to not have a new hearing on a renomination.

That infuriated Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. He said the panel’s top Republican. Chairman Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., “was trying to ram it through under the cover of night without having a hearing,” Cassidy told The Bee.

Sanders cited what he called Su’s “strong pro-worker track record and tireless dedication to working families.” That record, he said, “shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is the right person for the job.”

The full Senate can now consider Su’s nomination, though it’s unclear when — or if — that will happen.

Democrats control 51 of the Senate’s 100 seats — so with 49 Republicans likely to vote no, one Democrat saying he was opposed, and some undecided, the nomination did not come to a full Senate vote.

Biden nominates Su

President Joe Biden announced the Su appointment exactly a year ago. Su has been serving as acting secretary since March.

Concerns about Su’s performance as Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency surfaced quickly in the Senate.

The Employment Development Department, which managed the state’s often-chaotic unemployment program during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021, is part of that agency. The jobless benefit system was overwhelmed by the volume of claims, leading to consumer complaints and widespread fraud in the temporary federal unemployment program.

Su’s stewardship triggered skepticism among Republicans in Washington, as well as some Democrats — and it is not clear what will be different this time.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said he was not aware of any opponent who now backed Su, “but we’ll keep working on it.”

Padilla said that “as time goes on, people will continue to see the great job she’s doing.”

Help from old laws

Su remains in an acting role because of an unusual law passed in 1946 and amended in 1986. It allows the department’s deputy secretary – a job Su held from 2021 until last spring – to “perform the duties of the Secretary until a successor is appointed.”

Su’s role, Cassidy said, “makes a mockery of the advise and consent of the United States Senate, to have someone serve for a year when Congress has not yet approved her and then we don’t have a hearing on it.”

“We need a qualified Secretary of Labor who can impartially enforce the law, properly manage a department, and refrain from partisan activism. Ms. Su failed to show her ability to do any of those three things,” said Cassidy.

The U.S. Labor Department oversees the federal government’s job training programs, unemployment system, labor statistics and other labor-related duties and policies.

Republicans and some Democrats questioned how she could manage the department competently after her experience in California.

“I believe the person leading the U.S. Department of Labor should have the experience to collaboratively lead both labor and industry to forge compromises acceptable to both parties,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said last year.

“While her credentials and qualifications are impressive, I have genuine concerns that Julie Su’s more progressive background prevents her from doing this and for that reason I cannot support her nomination to serve as Secretary of Labor,” he added.

Su does have strong support from most Democrats, and the AFL-CIO has backed her, given her record as a strong advocate of workers’ rights. She received a genius grant from the MacArthur Foundation in 2001, for filing “a landmark federal lawsuit on behalf of these workers, establishing a precedent that expands the scope of employment responsibility beyond manufacturing subcontractors to the retailers and fashion designer labels that initially contract for the work.”