On March 30th, Alex Acosta was approved by a Senate committee to be the next Secretary of Labor, and the U.S. Senate is to take up his nomination when it reconvenes after the current April recess. The committee’s vote was along party lines, 12-11 in favor of the nomination, even though Mr. Acosta’s nomination was much less controversial than President Trump’s first nominee for Labor, Andrew Puzder.
Mr. Acosta was alternately praised and grilled by committee members at a hearing on March 22nd. He is reported by the SHRM to have stated that the salary threshold for the Fair Labor Standards Act’s white-collar exemptions, which is now in litigation, should be altered to match inflation.
Mr. Acosta’s most recent employment was as the dean of the law school at Florida International University. Now 48, he has served as an assistant secretary in the Department of Justice, as a U.S. Attorney in southern Florida, and as a member of the NLRB. A Cuban-American, he would be the first Hispanic in the Trump cabinet.