President Trump’s second choice to lead the Labor Department is about to get a hearing.
Alexander Acosta, a Florida law school dean and former federal civil rights lawyer, is set to testify before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Wednesday morning.
He follows Andrew Puzder, who withdrew his candidacy in February. Puzder lost Republican support amid mounting liabilities, including his employment of an undocumented housekeeper and allegations of abuse that were leveled by his ex-wife in the 1980s and later withdrawn.
Puzder is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast food chains. The company announced Tuesday that he will be replaced as CEO in April.
Acosta, the dean of Florida International University School of Law in Miami, has been through the Senate confirmation process three times.
He was tapped by President George W. Bush to sit on the National Labor Relations Board starting in 2002. He later led the Justice Department’s civil rights division and served as U.S. attorney in south Florida until 2009.
But Democrats want to flesh out his thin record on current labor issues, such as the minimum wage and overtime rules, and will ask him to take a position on Trump’s budget proposal, according to an aide to Senator Patty Murray, the committee’s top Democrat. The Trump budget would cut funding for the Labor Department by 20.7%.
Democrats also plan to grill Acosta on an investigation into politicized hiring while he was at the Justice Department.
A 2008 inspector general’s report found evidence of politically driven hiring and staffing within the civil rights division while Acosta was at the helm. It is illegal to consider political affiliation when filling career attorney positions.
Though the report laid fault with one of Acosta’s deputies, the report found that managers “failed to exercise sufficient oversight” in personnel practices.
If confirmed, Acosta would be the first Hispanic member of Trump’s Cabinet.