Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Credit: DeRemer
Members of the U.S. Senate voted 67-32 Monday to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer as secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.
As the DOL secretary, Chavez-DeRemer will oversee the Employee Benefits Security Administration.
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EBSA works with other federal agencies to draft, implement and enforce many federal regulations that affect employers' benefit plans, including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, the Affordable Care Act and the No Surprises Act.
Republicans supported the Chavez-DeRemer nomination by a 50-3 vote. Three Republicans — Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rand Paul of Kentucky — crossed party lines to vote against her, although they had voted in favor of the "cloture" motion that allowed her nomination to come to the Senate floor without fear of a "filibuster," or an endless round of debate.
Republican opponents have objected to Chavez-DeRemer's past support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act bill. Critics of the bill contend that it could force some employees to join unions and some people who want to operate as independent contractors to become employees. Chavez said she backed the bill because she wanted to help shape it and that she supports state right-to-work laws, which let workers who decline to join a union keep their jobs.
The 47 Democrats and independents who voted opposed the Chavez-DeRemer nomination by a 17-30 vote. One Democrat, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., did not vote.
Chavez-DeRemer previously represented Oregon in the U.S. House as a Republican for one term. She is the daughter of a Teamster and the wife of an anesthesiologist.
Chavez-DeRemer received 15 more Senate votes than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was confirmed as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in February.
Related: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed as HHS secretary by 52-48 Senate vote
The Senate has not begun public efforts to consider the nomination of Daniel Aronowitz, a fiduciary law expert and fiduciary liability insurance advisor, to be the assistant labor secretary who serves as the administrator of EBSA.
Kennedy is in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the HHS arm that helps oversee many laws and programs related to health care and health insurance, including HIPAA, the MHPAEA, the ACA, the No Surprises Act, Medicare, Medicaid and HealthCare.gov.
The Senate Finance Committee plans to hold a hearing on the nomination of Dr. Mehmet Oz to be the CMS administrator at 10 a.m. March 14.
Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon who was a professor at Columbia University's medical school. He also hosted television talk shows.
He has a reputation for being a strong supporter of the Medicare Advantage program and for openness to consider the evidence for some forms of alternative medicine.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
