On March 1, after President Joe Biden made the announcement that he was nominating Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su to replace outgoing Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, California Congressman Kevin Kiley launched into action. As the new Chair of the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, Kiley now had the platform to make a difference. As a former California Assemblyman who had firsthand knowledge of Su’s record as Secretary of California’s Workforce Development Agency—the Employment Development Division, Kiley also had the receipts that prove that Su is a horrible choice for Secretary of Labor. Her malevolence against small businesses, independent professionals, and workers is documented here, and here. Su’s incompetence rivals that of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

Once Walsh announced his resignation in February, Kiley wrote in his newsletter that Biden would attempt to install Su as his next choice and why we should be afraid… very afraid.

As California Labor Secretary, she was at the center of Newsom’s corruption and incompetence:

• After Newsom locked down the state, Su oversaw the EDD, the nation’s most inept unemployment office. 5 million Californians had benefits delayed and 1 million had benefits improperly denied.
• While hardworking California citizens couldn’t get their benefits, she let $30 billion go out the door in fraudulent payments to criminals – the largest fraud of taxpayer dollars in history.
• She supported and enforced Newsom’s vile AB 5 law, which put countless independent contractors out of work. She exploited the COVID shutdown to target them further and even improperly withheld federal benefits from freelancers.

There is no doubt that Newsom, who just returned from DC, is working behind the scenes to install Su. This would give him a greater foothold in Washington and play into his absurd “model for the nation” pitch as he prepares to fail up himself.

Kiley is spot on about Newsom pushing for this nomination, as we have been alerting you here at RedState. Another one of his ex-officials in an executive cabinet position would only help to grease the wheels for Newsom’s desire to rise to the White House.

On Wednesday, Kiley presented a letter to President Biden from the members of the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections in opposition to Su’s nomination. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Illinois Rep. Mary Miller also joined as signatories. When Kiley was a California Assemblyman and gubernatorial candidate, he was instrumental in the fight for freelancers, independent contractors, and solopreneurs against AB5, the so-called gig workers law which has destroyed the livelihoods of millions of independent professionals in that state. The Biden administration is once again pushing for passage of the PRO Act, which would spread the worse parts of AB5 nationally, killing right-to-work and independent businesses across the nation.

In a previous letter to President Biden, Kiley was joined by seven members of the California Congressional Delegation opposing Su’s nomination. Kiley urged the president to nominate “someone, anyone, other than Julie Su.” On Monday, Kiley gave a speech on the House floor and made a detailed case against this nomination.

WATCH:

“As Chair of the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, I am urging President Biden in the strongest terms to immediately withdraw Julie Su’s nomination. To say that Su failed in her previous role as Labor Secretary in California’s labor department is an extreme understatement. The amount of suffering Su’s Labor Department inflicted on my constituents and millions of Californians should entirely disqualify Su from consideration,” Kiley said.

Here’s a short list of the damage overseen and facilitated by Julie Su when she was the secretary of the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency (EDD):

1. Denied or severely delayed unemployment benefits to over 5 million Californians.
2. Paid out over $32 billion in taxpayer dollars to state prison inmates, international crime syndicates, and other criminals in what was the largest case of fraud in California history. This fraud was entirely preventable and its scale was unique to California.
3. Su championed and enforced AB5, which destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands of workers and effectively banned freelance work in California.

Su will do Biden’s bidding and implement AB5 and its disastrous impacts nationwide through the PRO Act. This is no joke.

RedState’s Brittany Sheehan also provided a detailed accounting of the destruction Su left in her wake once her nomination as Deputy Secretary of Labor was confirmed by the Senate in 2021. Kiley rightly said in his floor speech that the stories he related were in the hundreds, and that was just his Assembly office. California has 79 other Assembly districts and 40 State Senate districts, and those offices were also overwhelmed with calls and petitions. Kiley’s declaration that the EDD’s “level of service was worse than everything I had ever seen in government,” is spot on. There are people who to this day are waiting for promised unemployment benefits that probably went to a death-row inmate.

That is no exaggeration.

Kiley’s floor speech also brought to light how Su directed her agents to outright lie about the deliverable outcomes of the agency, and then to deny any accountability on its failure to the people of California. While this type of behavior is on brand for a Biden cabinet member, it is dangerous for the 5.4 million independent professionals, freelancers, and solopreneurs across the nation, as well as the franchisers and small businesses that would continue to be in the Labor Department’s crosshairs should Su be confirmed.

Call or write your elected official and demand they say NO to a Julie Su nomination. More California failure delivered to the nation is the last thing this country needs.