January 15, 2019
Donald Trump (click here) promised to hire only the “best people” to head government agencies, but two years into his four-year term, as many as a third to half of the federal agency executive positions he’s supposed to appoint are vacant, either because they resigned, were never confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, or were never nominated to begin with....
...OSHA: Scott Mugno To head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Trump nominated Scott Mugno, a former FedEx executive with a career-long history of opposing new OSHA regulations. At a January 2018 confirmation hearing, Mugno couldn’t name a single new OSHA rule he had supported during his two decades as safety chief at FedEx. The Republican-led committee approved him anyway, but his nomination never came up for a vote by the full Senate.
Wage and Hour Division: Cheryl Stanton The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division is responsible for regulating and enforcing minimum wage, overtime, and family leave requirements, as well as prevailing wage laws for construction employees on federal contracts. To lead it, Trump nominated Cheryl Marie Stanton, a South Carolina workforce agency executive and member of the board of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. Stanton formerly clerked for federal judge Samuel Alito (the labor foe who later became Supreme Court justice and wrote the anti-union Janus decision.) She also worked as a White House lawyer for President George W. Bush, serving as the administration’s liaison to the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board. Her nomination passed out of the Senate Health, Labor and Pensions Committee in January 2018, but never got a Senate floor vote.
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation: Gordon Hartogensis To head the federal government’s pension insurance agency, Trump nominated Gordon Hartogensis, a wealthy private investor and Republican donor with no experience in government or pension fund management. Hartogensis, 48, retired at age 29. He has spent the last seven years managing his family’s money. He’s also married to Grace Chao, the sister of Trump’s Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and is thus the brother-in-law of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). spends most of his time now managing his family’s money.
Employment and Training Administration: John Pallasch To head the agency in charge of job training and apprenticeships, Trump nominated John Pallasch, a Kentucky state workforce director and former Bush Jr. administration Labor Department official who also worked for anti-union education reformer Michelle Rhee.
