Biden Renews Push to Make Julie Su Labor Secretary

President Joe Biden is continuing efforts to get Julie Su confirmed as the secretary of the Labor Department.

Su has been deputy secretary of Labor since July 2021 and the acting Labor secretary since March 2023.

Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 11-10 to support her nomination in April 2023, but the Biden administration was unable to get the nomination to the Senate floor.

What it means: The Labor Department oversees the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the agency in charge of administering the investment fiduciary provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

Sue’s renomination means that the Senate will have a new chance to hold hearings on an official who has played a critical role in DOL efforts to impose a fiduciary standard on rollovers of retirement account assets into annuities and cash-value life insurance policies.

Julie Su: Su was born in Wisconsin and grew up in California. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford and a law degree from Harvard.

While in California, she served as head of the California Division of Labor Standards and the secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency.