Biden renominates Julie Su for Labor secretary after Senate delay

President Biden renominated Julie Su to serve as Labor secretary after her nomination was delayed in the Senate for months last year.

Biden sent her nomination to the Senate on Monday. He first nominated her in February, but her nomination appeared to reach a dead end in June, with Democratic leadership making little progress to get her confirmed.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, reiterated his support for Su when Biden renominated her. 

“Her strong pro-worker track record as Acting Secretary shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is the right person for the job. Her tireless and consistent work for working families across the country should continue as Secretary of Labor and I urge my colleagues to support her nomination,” he said in a Monday statement.

Su was nominated to replace former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who was the first Cabinet secretary in the line of succession to leave his post since the start of the Biden administration. The White House said last year, while the nomination was at a standstill, it was committed to Su’s confirmation and assembled a so-called war room to make calls every day about it.

At issue last Congress was the inability to shake loose two of the three moderates — Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) — whom Democrats need to back her nomination. Manchin was viewed as the least unlikely to back her, while Tester and Sinema’s stances were unclear.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) emerged at the time as the senator to watch during the confirmation fight, but it was unclear whether she would support Su’s nomination.