Solicitor during the george h. W. Bush administration. He was asked about safety, the minimum wage and protections for lgbtq workers among other topics. Good morning. Good morning. Should. Good morning. Good morning. The committee will come to order. Today were considering the nomination of Eugene Scalia. The Senate Committee on Health Education and pensions will please come to order. Today were considering the nomination of Eugene Scalia to serve as United States secretary of of labor. Let me say before i begin my Opening Statement that we welcome secretary chao, secretary, good to see you, and we welcome mr. Scalias family. Well give him a chance to introduce all of them a little later. There are so many of them i will the scalias are especially productive family, apparently, so it wont come any of your allotted time for your statement, and i would say to the family members that the confirmation hearings are a not necessarily a family exercise. I was before this committee myself more than 30 years ago to be nominated for education secretary and was grilled pretty heavily, i thought with my family sitting right behind me. I was accustomed to it, but they werent and they got over it before very long so we welcome you here and were glad youre here. Yesterday i received a letter from senator murray asking me to delay todays hearing. I think the Committee Members know i do my best to do what senator murray suggests that i do. We work cooperatively even when we disagree, but im not going to agree to that, and i want to carefully explain why. Weve already delayed the hearing one week at senator murrays request, and let me go over the nomination process just briefly. On july 18, two months ago, President Trump said he would nominate Eugene Scalia as the United States secretary of labor. Then on august 27th, three weeks ago the Committee Received mr. Scalias ethics paperwork from the government including his public Financial Disclosures and his ethics agreement and based on these documents the office of government ethics determined that mr. Scalia is, quote, in compliance with applicable laws and regulations concerning governing conflicts of interest, end quote. Then on the same day three weeks ago, august 27th, the Committee Received his committee paperwork which is extensive and is additional Background Information and all of that required paperwork has been before that committee for 23 days. More than three weeks and since that day, august 27th, mr. Scalia has offered to meet with every member of this committee and has met with most of us. Now to make sure im being exactly fair in the way i scheduled these confirmation meetings i checked closely with the most recent cabinet nominations and compared them with the way we handled President Trumps. This is what i found. Lets take the example of tom perez which was President Trumps second secretary of labor. The Committee Received the last of mr. Perezs paperwork ten days before his hearing or take the example of john king, president obamas second secretary of education. The Committee Received the last of mr. Kings paperwork six days before his hearing. So by comparison, mr. Scalia had all of his paperwork in 23 days before the hearing, and i also think its reasonable to vote on mr. Scalia next tuesday. This has been a thorough process. Senators have known for two months that the president has selected, nominated mr. Scalia. As of today, weve had all of his paperwork for 23 days. Today, senators will have the opportunity to have two rounds of questions. So every senator should be able to ask any additional question and the senator wishes to ask, that a senator did not ask when that person met personally with mr. Scalia and if the senators still have questions they can submit those by 5 00 p. M. Tomorrow and mr. Scalia will answer those before the vote on tuesday. Now i imagine the democrats on this committee disagree with mr. Scalia on labor policy about as much as republicans disagreed with secretary perez who is now chairman of the Democratic National committee and i disagreed with john king on many education matter, but when president obamas education secretary stepped down in his last year of office i went to the president , and i said mr. President , i think we need to have a confirmed Senate Nominee like u. S. Education secretary. If you will please nominate john king with whom i disagree i knew he wanted mr. King, but he also knew we disagreed with him. I said if youll nominate him even though we disagree, well consider and confirm him promptly, and we did. Within 32 days after president obama nominated john king and the senate had confirmed him. I also voted for the senate floor for both of these nominees even though i did not support their nominations. I did this because i believe its important that we have a confirmed and important cabinet member for president s and thats important to the senate so that we have a chance to interview and deal with our cabinet members and its important for the country for the president to be able to have his choice of a cabinet member promptly considered and confirmed. After receiving the ten days of mr. Perezs paperwork and six days after receiving mr. Kings paperwork it was good enough for President Trump, why is it not appropriate to have a hearing 23 days or three weeks after weve received mr. Scalias paperwork . It would certainly be hard for me as chairman to justify treating president bushs nominees worse than president obamas nominees. Senator murray and i will have an Opening Statement and secretary chao will introduce mr. Scalia. We welcome her and after his testimony, senators will each have five minutes of questions and as i said, well have two rounds of questions. So senators can have time to ask some. I know, as is often the case there are other hearings and meetings going on this morning so ive asked mr. Scalia to stay for the two rounds. Last week a Washington Times headline shows, strong economy, growing wages and low unemployment rate. Wages are growing at an annual rate of 3. 2 . Africanamerican unemployment fell to 5. 5 in august and the record low of 4. 4 for africanamerican women. Overall, unemployment is at a 50year low. Businesses and worker need a secretary of labor who will steer the department with a steady hand. I believe mr. Scalia has those skills. His broad experience in beths t both the public and private sector, where he spent the majority of his career dealing with these issues in 2002 and 03 he was solicitor of the u. S. Department of ljmor for president george w. Bush. As the chiefs chief lawyer he led initiatives to protect workers, to improven forcement and workforce safety laws. For example, a solicitor, he continued the case started by the Clinton Administration to ensure that a poultry factory was playing when they owed and they offered a their 10 million settle pment. He left as william war and the george h. W. Bush administration distinguished academic background and graduating from the university of virginia in 1985 and the university of Chicago Law School where he was editor in chief of the law review. Hes been a guest lecturer on labor and Employment Law at chicago, law school adjunct professor at the university of the district of columbia. He and his wife trish have seven children. Hes altogether well qualified for this job. Its important for the department to create an environment to help employers and employees succeed in todays rapidly changing workplace. One step the Trump Administration has taken to help the 700,000 americans who own and run their own franchises is is is to is involved with what we call the joint employer standards. In the obama years in 2015, the National LaborRelations Board issued a decision overturning more than 30 years of precedent creating a new joint employer standard. That decision 19 indirect or unexercised control over employees working conditions could make a franchisee and franchiser or employers discouraging companies from franchising at all. Then after the boards sdeshgsz the department of labor itself issued a guidance broadening the enter prettiation of joint employer. This has led a lot of confusion, its a dizzying world for multifactor tests for determining full employment and the administration she was and he withdraw the guidance and began a rulemaking standards and this year the Comment Period closed for a new rule which we hope will bring stability and the second way the administration has sought to create more certainty for employers has been to raise the salary threshold for overtime pay in a reasonable way. In 2014 the Obama Administration more than doubled that threshold. There was bipartisan opposition from congress and the department has proposed a much more reasonable rule it would require employees prior to future changes. Im glad to see these steps. As i mentioned earlier john king was secretary of education for about a month after president obama said he wanted mr. King to serve as secretary. In this case, its been about two months since President Trump announced he would nominate mr. Scalia to be the next labor secretary and the committee has had all of mr. Scalias paperwork and had an opportunity to meet with him for the past three weeks. The committee considered president obamas cabinet promptly and with respect and i trust the committee will continue that with president bushs nominees. It was embarrassing then and it is now for wellqualified americans to be nominated by the president of the United States, any president , for an important position and then say to them in effect you are innocent until nominated or drag things out for a long period of time. Mr. Scalia is supported by a number of trade organizations and the committees received letters of support from women he has mentored from former department of labor career attorneys whom he worked with while he was solicitor, from an hispan hispanic immigrant whom he reached on a pro bono basis, and from one of senator ted kennedys former senior counsels on the judiciary committee. He was a former chairman of this committee. I ask unanimous consent that those letters and 17 additional letters of support be submitted into the record. The committee will vote on tuesday on mr. Scalias nomination and i look forward to the full Senate Confirming him soon. Senator murray . Secretary chao, it is good to see you. Thank you for joining us today to introduce the nominee. Mr. Scalia, i appreciate you and your family being here today. I look forward to you introducing your very large family behind you. I know that will take a while, but we welcome all of you, as well. Mr. Chairman, i do want to start by expressing my frustration with this rushed process, and i have asked repeatedly to delay this confirmation hearing because i do believe that every nominees background should be reviewed carefully and thoroughly especially for a role this important moving from a normal nomination from came on september 11th to confirmation in less than two weeks as we have in this case is deeply concerning. Members have not been given enough time to review mr. Scalias background, and i have repeatedly asked for more time and in fact, we did not get answers to followup questions until late last night. So i want to be clear. I do not consider this nominees vet complete or sufficient. Mr. Scalia, i will be asking questions and gathering information about your record and i expect thorough answers and i am sure you will give them. So thank you. The chairman, i said there will be a markup next tuesday the 24th and i really do urge the chairman to move the markup so everyone really does have more time to consider this nominees very long, complex record. Why . Because workers and families across the country are counting on us to take our vetting responsibility seriously, specially since President Trump clearly wont. His first nominee was a millionaire fast food ceo who disparaged his own workers and was forced to withdraw from nomination. His second peck was a yes man for an antiworker agenda before resigning in disgrace as the country scrutinized his decision to give a sexual predator the deal of a lifetime. President trumps third pick, Eugene Scalia is an elite corporate lawyers who has spent his career fighting against corporations and against workers. I opposed mr. Scalia to the department of labor in 2001. 18 years later his record as they trampled workers rights has only gotten longer. Meanwhile, the need for someone who will stand up for workers and family and stand up to President Trump on their behalf has only become more urgence because we have seen time and again that President Trump will not hesitate to throw working families under the bus to help corporations and billionaires and the powerfully connected get even further. Like when he worked with republicans to jam through a 1. 5 trillion tax giveaway for corporations and the wealthy, a move that some republicans now ought to pay for by cutting medicare, mare caedicaid to blo democrats efforts to raise the minimum wage and ensure equal pay to seizing every opportunity to undermine workers rights to eitherize and join a union so they can advocate for higher pay and Better Benefits in a safer workplace and a secure retirement. The Trump Administration has consistently sided with corporations over workers. Instead of nominating someone who understands the challenges working people face and will fight for them, President Trump has chosen a powerful corporate lawyer who has devoted his career to protecting big corporations and ceos from accountability and attacking workers rights, protections and economic security. Instead of nominating a secretary of labor, President Trump has nominated a secretary of corporate interest. If theres one consistent pattern in mr. Scalias long career is hostility to the very workers he would be charged with protecting and the very laws he would be charged with enforcing if he were to be confirmed. Like when he threw billions of dollars at workers Retirement Savings into jeopardy by suing to strike down the departments fiduciary rule. Thats a commonsense rule that protected workers Retirement Savings by simply requiring Financial Advisers to put their clients interests ahead of their own. Mr. Scalia has made a career out of striking down laws that protect people like from his work for big businesses looking to hack away at the safeguards and protections mebts to avoid another economic crash to fighting against protections for Workers Health and safety. When the department was working on a rule requiring employers to make accommodations to help prevent and address one of the most common place workplace injuries repetitive stress injuries, mr. Scalia callously d dismissed the Health Concerns of junk science and crusaded on behalf of corporate clients to undermine and overturn that rule. He hasnt just fought against rules to protect against worker safety from being stolen by employers. Democrats have been pushing to raise the minimum wage to 15, to end the lower wage for tipped workers and workers with disabilities, to close the pay gap and make sure workers are not cheated out of their hardearned pay. Republicans continue to block our efforts to pay workers more so i believe we need a secretary who cares about giving workers a raise and not one who criticized President Trumps decision to increase the minimum wage for workers who are on federal contracts. Not one who fought to help corporate clients steal employees tips and get out of paying overtime wages, and we need someone who will hold companies accountable, not let them off the hook at every opportunity. The last time mr. Scalia served in the department of labor rerestricteded retaliations against whistleblowers so severely he garnered bipartisan criticism from being openly hostile to whistleblowers. When it comes to accountability for discrimination mr. Scalias record is equally unacceptable. In one case he defended a company that discriminated against a job applicant because of her her style. In another in which mr. Scalia was named as one of the most important issues hes worked on, he argued that employers should be able to discriminate against people with disabilities based on perceptions about what they can do, and successfully undermine the landmark protections in the americans with disabilities act, and when it comes to accountability for workplace harassment, mr. Scalias record got worse. While our nation is grappling with this epidemic, mr. Scalia is working to help get businesses off the hook. 30 women have been fighting to hold ford accountable for Sexual Harassment and assault they allege they experienced in the workplace, everything from unwanted touching to assault. Mr. Scalia has been fighting to get their case thrown out of court. He argued some of the survivors should have their claims dismissed because they failed to note the lawsuit during a bankruptcy proceeding. Our nation needs a secretary of labor who will prioritize addressing the epidemic of workplace har