Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigns as Labor Secretary amid misconduct probe
Of all the Trump administration cabinet officials who have exited early and unceremoniously, Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer can arguably be said to have done the least damage. That's in large part because she did so little.
Chavez-DeRemer did not preside over a chaotic immigration policy that briefly made Minnesota look like a warzone or have indictment after indictment by the Justice Department crumble in court. Nor was she the Big Labor booster that many expected she would become. No, the former DOL chief is merely alleged to have spent her time partying on the taxpayer's dime and generally being a terrible boss. That's not good, but no one was directly hurt, and no bad policy was advanced. We must take the positives where we can find them.
Several observers, myself included, warned from the start that Chavez-DeRemer was a poor choice for labor secretary because she lacked any serious qualifications for the job. Chavez-DeRemer was a one-term congresswoman from northwestern Oregon who had previously only served as mayor of a town of 25,000 people for eight years. She had no background in union activity as a worker, activist, or attorney. She did serve on the Education and the Workforce Committee during her solitary term in Congress but did not use it as a platform for any particular issue or policy.
The principal reason she became the second Trump administration's pick to lead the Labor Department was that International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O'Brien pushed for her nomination. O'Brien had been trying to build bridges with the Trump administration, having spoken at the 2024 Republican convention (though without actually endorsing Trump). Chavez-DeRemer's nomination was where that paid off for him.
Chavez-DeRemer's father had been a Teamster, and she had signed on as a co-sponsor of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a misleadingly named union wish-list bill. She did this late in her congressional term in a vain attempt to garner union support for her unsuccessful 2024 congressional re-election bid. These two facts were nevertheless reason enough for O'Brien to champion her. He presumably assumed it would give him an ally in the administration.
"As the daughter of a Teamster, Lori Chavez-DeRemer knows the importance of carrying a union card and what it means to grow up in a middle-class household," O'Brien insisted.
The payoff O'Brien received was scant. Chavez-DeRemer promptly backtracked on her support of the PRO Act during her Senate confirmation hearing, stating that she had co-sponsored the legislation solely to have "a seat at the table" on labor policy reform. She did not pursue it or any of its provisions while she was the Secretary of Labor.
Under Chavez-DeRemer's leadership, the DOL proposed undoing some ill-advised Biden-era rulemakings. One Biden rule harmed independent contracting, i.e., freelancing. Another Biden rule on "joint employer" status would make corporations far more reluctant to franchise their brand, something that has traditionally been a major avenue for young entrepreneurs to get their start. In both cases, the current Trump administration's proposed rules would reinstate rules put in place during the first term - rulemakings the Biden folks didn't like.
That was pretty much it. Chavez-DeRemer's legacy is that she tried to return the Labor Department to the status quo that held at the end of the first Trump administration. Compare her to past Republican-appointed secretaries such as Eugene Scalia or Elaine Chao. Scalia shepherded in the rules that the current administration is trying to restore. Chao put in place tough transparency rules for union finances, allowing reporters and the union rank and file to better understand how union members' dues money was actually being spent.
Chavez-DeRemer wasn't anywhere near as proactive. Perhaps that was because she had some, shall we say, distractions. She toured 37 states in 2025, part of an official outreach tour, and in the process became a favorite of the tabloids. Chavez-DeRemer was subsequently investigated by the department's inspector general for alleged misuse of funds and... other matters. Chavez-DeRemer decided on April 20 she'd had enough and resigned the night before she was due to be interviewed by the inspector general.
Her resignation gives O'Brien and other Big Labor-allied figures such as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) another chance to push their pick to run the DOL. Let's hope that President Trump's next pick for labor secretary is both qualified and a better advocate for policies that cut red tape and help workers and employers prosper.
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