Biden Labor Nominee In Jeopardy: Key Dems Silent On How They'll Vote
President Biden's nomination of Julie Su to lead the Department of Labor is on thin ice in the Senate, as several moderate Democrats have yet to voice support amid scrutiny of Su's disastrous record as California labor secretary.
With just a 51-49 margin of control in the Senate -- and Dianne Feinstein out battling shingles with no return date set -- Democrats need everyone to line up for Su. So far, however, Mark Kelly (AZ), Joe Manchin (WV), Jon Tester (MT) and the now-independent Krysten Sinema (AZ) have refused to voice their support.
During Su's tenure, California's labor department paid out some $33 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims. In the first six months of the pandemic, a whopping 36.6% of the total benefits paid out were for bogus claims.
Put on the defensive in Thursday's Senate confirmation hearing, Su said, “Fraud, waste and abuse of any kind is completely unacceptable,” she said. “I shut the front door to that fraud.”
But when? Early on, the federal government warned Su's department that it needed to beef up its counter-fraud efforts. In May 2020, the US DoL told California that its March and April claims likely included $1.2 billion in fraud. Rather than tightening things up, California stopped using a functionality that stops payments that are flagged as suspicious -- and the criminals' gold rush ran wild.
Criminals' contempt for California's vetting system was evident in the claims, many of which were field with carefree levity. One crook received money using Senator Feinstein's identity. Another cashed in as "Mr. Poopy Pants." Many of the fraudsters filed their claims from behind bars.
Mitt Romney ridiculed her nomination:
"Your record [in California] is so severely lacking, I don't know how in the world it makes sense for the president to nominate you to take over this department...You haven't had experience negotiating a major deal between unions and management and your leadership of an enterprise resulted in $31 billion of fraudulent payments."
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