Sanders weighs in on expected Labor secretary opening

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has weighed in on an anticipated opening in President Biden’s Cabinet as Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is expected to step down from the post.

Sanders, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sent the letter to Biden, dated Friday, suggesting two people who could fill Walsh’s seat: Sara Nelson, the head of the largest flight attendants’ union, and former Clinton-administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich. 

“Either of these candidates would do an excellent job. I look forward to working with you to ensure the Department of Labor is led by a champion for workers,” Sanders wrote in the letter, first reported on by Punchbowl News.

The senator lauded Nelson as a “leading voice for worker rights” and a “very strong communicator of progressive values” with three decades as a union member. 

Sanders said Reich, who is now a professor of public policy at the University of California Berkeley’s Goldman School, “is widely regarded as one of the most effective Secretaries of Labor in modern history” and would “hit the ground running” if he returned to the post. 

Walsh is expected to leave the Biden administration to take over as head of the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA), and his likely exit has opened up debate over who should succeed him.

Asian Americans in Congress hope Biden will promote Walsh’s deputy secretary Julie Su, naming the first Asian American to his Cabinet.

But ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has thrown former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s (D-N.Y.) name into the mix, complicating Biden’s decision.