We (Finally) Have a Secretary of Labor

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Alexander Acosta as Secretary of Labor.

The Senate voted 60-38 in favor of confirming Acosta on April 27. He was approved March 30 by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on a 12-11 party-line vote.

Currently Acosta serves as dean of Florida International University’s law school, a post he has held since 2009. He has also been:

• a member of the National Labor Relations Board (2002-2003);

• Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division (2003-2005);

• the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida (2005-2009) and a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3d Circuit; and

• chairman of U.S. Century Bank since 2013.

The 48-year-old Acosta is the son of Cuban immigrants. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard and a law degree from Harvard Law School. Acosta practiced law at the firm of Kirkland & Ellis, where he specialized in employment and labor issues. Acosta also taught employment law, disability-based discrimination law and civil rights law classes at George Mason University’s School of Law.

Acosta is expected to act quickly to address some Obama-era regulations — notably, though not exclusively, the fiduciary regulation. During questioning by senators during his confirmation hearing, Acosta said of President Trump’s executive action concerning the fiduciary rule: “The executive action, as I recall, directs the secretary of labor and the Department of Labor to repeal or revise the fiduciary rule if any of the criteria laid out in that executive order is found. And so that criteria really regulates and determines the Department of Labor's fiduciary rule.”