President Trump on Tuesday officially tapped Eugene Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, to be his administration’s next secretary of labor.
The president forecast his nomination of Scalia last month, just days after Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta resigned amid criticism of his kid-gloved handling of Florida prostitution charges against the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
“Gene has led a life of great success in the legal and labor field and is highly respected not only as a lawyer, but as a lawyer with great experience working with labor and everyone else,” Trump wrote Tuesday in a pair of tweets announcing his decision. “He will be a great member of an Administration that has done more in the first 2 ½ years than perhaps any Administration in history!”
Scalia is a partner at corporate law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and was a top lawyer for George W. Bush’s Labor Department. His nomination has been targeted by organized labor and Democrats, who cite his long history of fighting unions and labor regulations.
“The rich and powerful have teamed up with the Republican party to push for measures at all levels of government designed to decimate unions and collective bargaining. Eugene Scalia is the latest example,” Senator Elizabeth Warren’s campaign said last month. “He’s opposed implementing financial reforms at every turn and has spent his entire career representing giant corporations and Wall Street over American workers.”
Scalia will appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for a confirmation hearing when Congress returns from its summer recess.