Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Credit: Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Senators focused mainly on labor relations, immigration and respect for law Wednesday during a hearing on the nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be President Donald Trump's Labor secretary.
If Chavez-DeRemer is confirmed by the Senate, she would be a top regulator for employer-sponsored health plans, defined contribution retirement plans and pension plans.
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She would oversee the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the agency that manages federal government activities related to the Affordable Care Act, mental health parity rules, retirement plan administration rules, and flexible spending accounts and other personal health benefits accounts.
But Chavez-DeRemer — a former Republican House member and the wife of the owner of an anesthesiology management company in the Portland, Oregon, area — received only one question about employee benefits.
Related: Trump's Labor secretary pick led employer health plan data access bill, as House member
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, asked Chavez-DeRemer if she would support the Butch-Lewis Act. The act is a law enacted in 2021 that lets the U.S. Treasury Department provide financial support for troubled multiemployer pension plans.
"You would go to the mat supporting it?" Sanders asked during the hearing, which took place in Washington and was streamed live on the web.
"I do support protecting people's retirement," DeRemer-Chavez said.
Republicans on the committee focused mainly on concerns about her support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act bill, a measure that could make it easier for workers to organize and join unions. They did ask some general questions about benefits access for independent contractors.
Democrats pressed Chavez-DeRemer repeatedly about whether she would obey the federal law and follow the Constitution if Trump asked her to do otherwise.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Chavez-DeRemer about the possibility that she might decline to spend funds Congress had appropriated for support for job training programs and other programs.
"Will you commit to following Appropriations laws?" Murray asked.
"I will follow the law and the Constitution," Chavez-DeRemer said.
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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.
